Methods and systems for providing application programming interfaces and application programming interface extensions to third party applications for optimizing and minimizing application traffic

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for providing APIs and API extensions to third party applications for optimizing and minimizing application traffic are provided. According to one aspect, a method for optimizing and minimizing application traffic in a wireless network includes defining an application programming interface (API) for controlling application traffic between an application client residing on a mobile device that operates within a wireless network and an application server not residing on the mobile device and using the API to optimize application traffic in the wireless network.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a continuation of International Patent ApplicationSerial No. PCT/US14/42791, filed Jun. 17, 2014, which claims the benefitof U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/836,114, filed Jun.17, 2013, the disclosures of each of which are incorporated herein byreference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to signaling optimization in a wireless network.More specifically, it relates to methods and systems for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic.

BACKGROUND

The constant connections and disconnections of a mobile device toservices and entities within a telecommunication and/or data networkincrease the amount of signaling network traffic within that network,which lowers the performance of the network overall. This imposes aburden upon network operators that forces them to increase bandwidth andnetwork access. To date, carriers have been able to invest in 4G and LTEnetworks to boost network capacity in hotspots. However, these solutionsare reaching their limit. LTE and 4G are also showing that the perceivedcapacity of added bandwidth is causing users and applications toincrease usage and data consumption. In the long run, it might add tothe congestion problem rather than help.

Furthermore, in most cases, a mobile device may be receiving data frommultiple sources (e.g., servers, web-sites, nodes of a network, etc.) inthe service network. The router/communication network between theservices and the client ensures that all services can communicatechanges to the client over a single physical connection. However, aproblem that may occur is that different services (without knowing ofeach other's actions) trigger the client to create that connection atdifferent times, and there may be a lack of an efficient or optimalalignment of data transfer from the services to the client. Henceefficient utilization of the shared connection is lacking (or at leastminimal or sub-optimal) and at times the single connection may inreality only provide an adequate or a realistic level of service for asingle service or source of data.

While mobile or broadband networks may be designed for high-throughputof large amounts of data, they were not necessarily tailored to servicethe mobile applications that require frequent, low-throughput requestsof small amounts of data. Existing networks also do not take intoaccount different types of mobile traffic and priorities of thedifferent types of traffic, for example, from a user experienceperspective.

Such transactions put the mobile device radio in a high-power mode for aconsiderable length of time—typically between 15-30 seconds. As thehigh-power mode can consume as much as 100× the power as an idle mode,these network-initiated applications are power hungry and can quicklydrain the battery. The issue has been exacerbated by the rapid increaseof the popularity of applications with network-initiatedfunctionalities, such as push email, news feeds, status updates,multimedia content sharing and other mobile applications, etc.Furthermore, the problem with constant polling is that mobile phonesalso rely on signaling to send and receive calls and SMS messages andsometimes these basic mobile functions are forced to take a backseat tounruly applications and other mobile clients.

Therefore, in light of these disadvantages associated with conventionalinteractions between applications residing on a mobile device and thenetwork entities with which the mobile device and its applications mayinteract, there is a need for a more intelligent approach to this kindof traffic. More specifically, there is a need for methods and systemsfor providing APIs and API extensions to third party applications foroptimizing and minimizing application traffic.

SUMMARY

According to one aspect, the subject matter described herein includes amethod for optimizing and minimizing application traffic in a wirelessnetwork. In one embodiment, the method includes defining an applicationprogramming interface (API) for controlling application traffic betweenan application client residing on a mobile device that operates within awireless network and an application server not residing on the mobiledevice, and using the API to optimize application traffic in thewireless network.

According to another aspect, the subject matter described hereinincludes a system for optimizing and minimizing application traffic in awireless network. In one embodiment, the system includes a mobile devicethat operates within a wireless network. The mobile device includes anapplication client that interacts with an application server notresiding on the mobile device, where the mobile device supports anapplication programming interface (API) for controlling applicationtraffic between the application client and the application server, andwhere the API is used to optimize the application traffic.

According to yet another aspect, the subject matter described hereinincludes a computer program product for signaling optimization in awireless network utilizing proprietary and non-proprietary protocols.The computer program product includes a non-transitory computer readablestorage medium having computer readable code embodied therewith, thecomputer readable code configured for defining an applicationprogramming interface (API) for controlling application traffic betweenan application client residing on a mobile device that operates within awireless network and an application server not residing on the mobiledevice, and using the API to optimize application traffic in thewireless network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the subject matter described herein will now be explainedwith reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the like referencenumerals represent like parts, of which:

FIG. 1A illustrates an example diagram of a system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein;

FIG. 1B illustrates an example diagram of a system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein;

FIG. 1C illustrates an example diagram of the logical architecture of adistributed proxy and cache system for providing APIs and API extensionsto third party applications for optimizing and minimizing applicationtraffic according to an embodiment of the subject matter describedherein;

FIG. 1D illustrates an example diagram showing the architecture ofclient side components in a distributed proxy and cache system forproviding APIs and API extensions to third party applications foroptimizing and minimizing application traffic according to an embodimentof the subject matter described herein;

FIG. 1E illustrates a diagram of the example components on the serverside of a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIs and APIextensions to third party applications for optimizing and minimizingapplication traffic according to an embodiment of the subject matterdescribed herein;

FIG. 1F illustrates an example diagram showing data flows betweenexample client side components in a distributed proxy and cache systemfor providing APIs and API extensions to third party applications foroptimizing and minimizing application traffic according to an embodimentof the subject matter described herein;

FIG. 2A depicts a block diagram illustrating an example of client-sidecomponents in a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein;

FIG. 2B depicts a block diagram illustrating a further example ofcomponents in a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein, which is capable of caching and adaptingcaching strategies for mobile application behavior and/or networkconditions, including detecting long poll requests and managing cachingof long polls;

FIG. 2C depicts a block diagram illustrating a further example ofcomponents in a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein, which is further capable of detecting cachedefeat and perform caching of content addressed by identifiers intendedto defeat cache and which is further capable of performing mobiletraffic categorization and policy implementation based on applicationbehavior and/or user activity;

FIG. 2D depicts a block diagram illustrating examples of additionalcomponents in the local cache of a distributed proxy and cache systemfor providing APIs and API extensions to third party applications foroptimizing and minimizing application traffic according to an embodimentof the subject matter described herein, which is further capable ofperforming mobile traffic categorization and policy implementation basedon application behavior and/or user activity;

FIG. 2E depicts a block diagram illustrating examples of additionalcomponents in the traffic shaping engine and the application behaviordetector of a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIs andAPI extensions to third party applications for optimizing and minimizingapplication traffic according to an embodiment of the subject matterdescribed herein, which are further capable of facilitating alignment ofincoming data transfer to a mobile or broadband device, or its user, tooptimize the number of connections that need to be established forreceiving data over the wireless network or broadband network;

FIG. 3A depicts a block diagram illustrating an example of server-sidecomponents of a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein, which can further categorize mobile trafficand/or implement delivery policies based on application behavior,content priority, user activity, and/or user expectations, for example,for further use in aligning data transfer to optimize connectionsestablished for wireless transmission to a mobile device and which canalso facilitate using a user as an end point for profiling andoptimizing the delivery of content and data in a wireless network;

FIG. 3B depicts a block diagram illustrating a further example ofcomponents in the caching policy manager of a distributed proxy andcache system for providing APIs and API extensions to third partyapplications for optimizing and minimizing application traffic accordingto an embodiment of the subject matter described herein, which iscapable of caching and adapting caching strategies for mobileapplication behavior and/or network conditions and which is also capableof detecting long poll requests and managing caching of long polls;

FIG. 3C depicts a block diagram illustrating another example ofcomponents of a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein, which is further capable of managing anddetecting cache defeating mechanisms and monitoring content sources;

FIG. 3D depicts a block diagram illustrating examples of additionalcomponents of a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein, which is further capable of performing mobiletraffic categorization and policy implementation based on applicationbehavior and/or traffic priority;

FIG. 3E depicts a block diagram illustrating examples of additionalcomponents in the traffic shaping engine of a distributed proxy andcache system for providing APIs and API extensions to third partyapplications for optimizing and minimizing application traffic accordingto an embodiment of the subject matter described herein, which isfurther capable of aligning data transfer to a mobile or broadbanddevice, or other recipient, to optimize connections established fortransmission in a wireless network or broadband network;

FIG. 4A depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example process fordistributed content caching between a mobile device (e.g., any wirelessdevice) and remote proxy and the distributed management of contentcaching within a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein;

FIG. 4B depicts a timing diagram showing how data requests from a mobiledevice (e.g., any wireless device) to an application server/contentprovider in a wireless network (or broadband network) can be coordinatedby a distributed proxy system in a manner such that network and batteryresources are conserved through using content caching and monitoringperformed by a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIs andAPI extensions to third party applications for optimizing and minimizingapplication traffic according to an embodiment of the subject matterdescribed herein;

FIG. 5 depicts a table showing examples of different traffic orapplication category types which can be used in implementing networkaccess and content delivery policies by a distributed proxy and cachesystem for providing APIs and API extensions to third party applicationsfor optimizing and minimizing application traffic according to anembodiment of the subject matter described herein;

FIG. 6 depicts a table showing examples of different content categorytypes which can be used in implementing network access and contentdelivery policies by a distributed proxy and cache system for providingAPIs and API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein;

FIG. 7 depicts an interaction diagram showing how polls having datarequests from a mobile device (e.g., any wireless device) to anapplication server/content provider over a wireless network (orbroadband network) can be can be cached on the local proxy and managedby the distributed caching system of a distributed proxy and cachesystem for providing APIs and API extensions to third party applicationsfor optimizing and minimizing application traffic according to anembodiment of the subject matter described herein;

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow chart showing an example flow for userbehavior based resource allocation in a wireless network component of adistributed proxy and cache system for providing APIs and API extensionsto third party applications for optimizing and minimizing applicationtraffic according to an embodiment of the subject matter describedherein;

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart showing an example flow for contentconsumption based resource allocation to a user in a wireless networkcomponent of a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIs andAPI extensions to third party applications for optimizing and minimizingapplication traffic according to an embodiment of the subject matterdescribed herein;

FIG. 10 illustrates a flow chart showing examples of statisticsaggregated or computed for content consumption in a wireless networkcomponent of a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIs andAPI extensions to third party applications for optimizing and minimizingapplication traffic according to an embodiment of the subject matterdescribed herein;

FIG. 11 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process forcollecting information about a request and the associated response toidentify cacheability and caching the response within a distributedproxy and cache system for providing APIs and API extensions to thirdparty applications for optimizing and minimizing application trafficaccording to an embodiment of the subject matter described herein;

FIG. 12 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process showingdecision flows to determine whether a response to a request can becached within a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein;

FIG. 13 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process fordetermining potential for cacheability based on request periodicityand/or response repeatability by a distributed proxy and cache systemfor providing APIs and API extensions to third party applications foroptimizing and minimizing application traffic according to an embodimentof the subject matter described herein;

FIG. 14 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process fordynamically adjusting caching parameters for a given request or clientby a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIs and APIextensions to third party applications for optimizing and minimizingapplication traffic according to an embodiment of the subject matterdescribed herein;

FIG. 15 depicts a flow chart illustrating example processes forapplication and/or traffic (data) categorization while factoring in useractivity and expectations for implementation of network access andcontent delivery policies by a distributed proxy and cache system forproviding APIs and API extensions to third party applications foroptimizing and minimizing application traffic according to an embodimentof the subject matter described herein;

FIG. 16A depicts a flow chart illustrating example processes forhandling traffic which is to be suppressed at least temporarilydetermined from application/traffic categorization by a distributedproxy and cache system for providing APIs and API extensions to thirdparty applications for optimizing and minimizing application trafficaccording to an embodiment of the subject matter described herein;

FIG. 16B depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process forselection of a network configuration for use in sending traffic based onapplication and/or traffic (data) categorization by a distributed proxyand cache system for providing APIs and API extensions to third partyapplications for optimizing and minimizing application traffic accordingto an embodiment of the subject matter described herein;

FIG. 16C depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process forimplementing network access and content delivery policies based onapplication and/or traffic (data) categorization by a distributed proxyand cache system for providing APIs and API extensions to third partyapplications for optimizing and minimizing application traffic accordingto an embodiment of the subject matter described herein;

FIG. 17 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process for networkselection based on mobile user activity or user expectations by adistributed proxy and cache system for providing APIs and API extensionsto third party applications for optimizing and minimizing applicationtraffic according to an embodiment of the subject matter describedherein;

FIG. 18 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computer system within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed within a distributed proxy and cachesystem for providing APIs and API extensions to third party applicationsfor optimizing and minimizing application traffic according to anembodiment of the subject matter described herein; and

FIG. 19 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process for providingAPIs and API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not tobe construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, in certaininstances, well-known or conventional details are not described in orderto avoid obscuring the description. References to “one embodiment” or“an embodiment” in the present disclosure can be, but not necessarilyare, references to the same embodiment and such references mean at leastone of the embodiments.

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentof the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” invarious places in the specification are not necessarily all referring tothe same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodimentsmutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features aredescribed which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others.Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirementsfor some embodiments but not other embodiments.

The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinarymeanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in thespecific context where each term is used. Certain terms that are used todescribe the disclosure are discussed below, or elsewhere in thespecification, to provide additional guidance to the practitionerregarding the description of the disclosure. For convenience, certainterms may be highlighted, for example using italics and/or quotationmarks. The use of highlighting has no influence on the scope and meaningof a term; the scope and meaning of a term is the same, in the samecontext, whether or not it is highlighted. It will be appreciated thatsame thing can be said in more than one way.

Consequently, alternative language and synonyms may be used for any oneor more of the terms discussed herein, nor is any special significanceto be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussedherein. Synonyms for certain terms are provided. A recital of one ormore synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use ofexamples anywhere in this specification, including examples of any termsdiscussed herein, is illustrative only, and is not intended to furtherlimit the scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any exemplifiedterm. Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodimentsgiven in this specification.

Without intent to limit the scope of the disclosure, examples ofinstruments, apparatus, methods and their related results according tothe embodiments of the present disclosure are given below. Note thattitles or subtitles may be used in the examples for convenience of areader, which in no way should limit the scope of the disclosure. Unlessotherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein havethe same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in theart to which this disclosure pertains. In the case of conflict, thepresent document, including definitions, will control.

FIG. 1A illustrates an example diagram of a system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein. FIG. 1A illustrates a system in which a hostserver facilitates management of traffic, content caching, and/orresource conservation between mobile devices (e.g., wireless devices),an application server or content provider, or other servers such as anad server, promotional content server, or an e-coupon server in awireless network (or broadband network) for resource conservation. Thehost server can further provide APIs and API extensions to 3rd partyapplications for optimizing and minimizing application traffic throughbatching, or aligning traffic or “clumping”.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1A, a host server 100 facilitatesmanagement of traffic, content caching, and/or resource conservationbetween mobile devices (e.g., wireless devices 150 or client devices150), and an application server or content provider 110, or otherservers such as an ad server 140A, promotional content server 140B, oran e-coupon server 140C in a wireless network (or broadband network) forresource conservation. The host server 100 can further become aware ofmobile device radio states for use in selecting a suitablecommunications channel for sending messages generated by the host serveror other control signals and facilitate using a user as an end point forprofiling and optimizing the delivery of content and data in a wirelessnetwork.

The mobile/client devices 150 can be any system and/or device, and/orany combination of devices/systems that is able to establish aconnection, including wired, wireless, cellular connections with anotherdevice, a server and/or other systems such as host server 100 and/orapplication server/content provider 110. Client/mobile devices 150 willtypically include a display and/or other output functionalities topresent information and data exchanged between among the devices 150and/or the host server 100 and/or application server/content provider110. The application server/content provider 110 can by any serverincluding third party servers or service/content providers furtherincluding advertisement, promotional content, publication, or electroniccoupon servers or services. Similarly, separate advertisement servers140A, promotional content servers 140B, and/or e-Coupon servers 140C asapplication servers or content providers are illustrated by way ofexample.

For example, the client/mobile devices 150 can include mobile, hand heldor portable devices, wireless devices, or non-portable devices and canbe any of, but not limited to, a server desktop, a desktop computer, acomputer cluster, or portable devices, including a notebook, a laptopcomputer, a handheld computer, a palmtop computer, a mobile phone, acell phone, a smart phone, a PDA, a Blackberry device, a Palm device,any tablet, a phablet (a class of smart phones with larger screen sizesbetween a typical smart phone and tablet), a handheld tablet (e.g., aniPad, the Galaxy series, the Nexus, the Kindles, Kindle Fires, anyAndroid-based tablet, Windows-based tablet, Amazon-based, or any othertablet), any portable readers/reading devices, a hand held console, ahand held gaming device or console, a head mounted device, a headmounted display, a thin client or any Super Phone such as the iPhone,and/or any other portable, mobile, hand held devices, or fixed wirelessinterface such as a M2M device, etc. In one embodiment, the clientdevices 150 (or mobile devices 150), host server 100, and applicationserver 110 are coupled via a network 106 and/or a network 108. In someembodiments, the devices 150 and host server 100 may be directlyconnected to one another.

The input mechanism on client devices 150 can include touch screenkeypad (including single touch, multi-touch, gesture sensing in 2D or3D, etc.), a physical keypad, a mouse, a pointer, a track pad, a stylus,a stylus detector/sensor/receptor, motion detector/sensor (e.g.,including 1-axis, 2-axis, 3-axis accelerometer, etc.), a facedetector/recognizer, a retinal detector/scanner, a light sensor,capacitance sensor, resistance sensor, temperature sensor, proximitysensor, a piezoelectric device, device orientation detector (e.g.,electronic compass, tilt sensor, rotation sensor, gyroscope,accelerometer), or any combination of the above.

Signals received or detected indicating user activity at client devices150 through one or more of the above input mechanism, or others, can beused in the disclosed technology in acquiring context awareness at theclient device 150. Context awareness at client devices 150 generallyincludes, by way of example but not limitation, client device 150operation or state acknowledgement, management, useractivity/behavior/interaction awareness, detection, sensing, tracking,trending, and/or application (e.g., mobile applications) type, behavior,activity, operating state, etc.

Context awareness in the present disclosure also includes knowledge anddetection of network side contextual data and can include networkinformation such as network capacity, bandwidth, traffic, type ofnetwork/connectivity, and/or any other operational state data. Networkside contextual data can be received from and/or queried from networkservice providers (e.g., cell provider 114 and/or Internet serviceproviders) of the network 106 and/or network 108 (e.g., by the hostserver and/or devices 150). In addition to application context awarenessas determined from the client 150 side, the application contextawareness may also be received from or obtained/queried from therespective application/service providers 110 (by the host 100 and/orclient devices 150).

The host server 100 can use, for example, contextual informationobtained for client devices 150, networks 106/108, applications (e.g.,mobile applications), application server/provider 110, or anycombination of the above, to manage the traffic in the system to satisfydata needs of the client devices 150 (e.g., to satisfy application orany other request including HTTP request). In one embodiment, thetraffic is managed by the host server 100 to satisfy data requests madein response to explicit or non-explicit user 103 requests and/ordevice/application maintenance tasks. The traffic can be managed suchthat network consumption, for example, use of the cellular network isconserved for effective and efficient bandwidth utilization. Inaddition, the host server 100 can manage and coordinate such traffic inthe system such that use of device 150 side resources (e.g., includingbut not limited to battery power consumption, radio use,processor/memory use) are optimized with a general philosophy forresource conservation while still optimizing performance and userexperience.

For example, in context of battery conservation, the device 150 canobserve user activity (for example, by observing user keystrokes,backlight status, or other signals via one or more input mechanisms,etc.) and alters device 150 behaviors. The device 150 can also requestthe host server 100 to alter the behavior for network resourceconsumption based on user activity or behavior.

In one embodiment, the traffic management for resource conservation isperformed using a distributed system between the host server 100 andclient device 150. The distributed system can include proxy server andcache components on the server side 100 and on the device/client side,for example, as shown by the server cache 135 on the server 100 side andthe local cache 185 on the client 150 side.

Functions and techniques disclosed for context aware traffic managementfor resource conservation in networks (e.g., network 106 and/or 108) anddevices 150, reside in a distributed proxy and/or cache system (e.g.,(distributed) traffic optimizer, traffic management system,(distributed) content caching mechanism for traffic alleviation) (e.g.,(distributed) traffic optimizer, traffic management system,(distributed) content caching mechanism for traffic alleviation). Theproxy and cache system can be distributed between, and reside on, agiven client device 150 in part or in whole and/or host server 100 inpart or in whole. The distributed proxy and/or cache system (e.g.,(distributed) traffic optimizer, traffic management system,(distributed) content caching mechanism for traffic alleviation) (e.g.,(distributed) traffic optimizer, traffic management system,(distributed) content caching mechanism for traffic alleviation) areillustrated with further reference to the example diagram shown in FIG.1C. Functions and techniques performed by the (distributed) proxy and/orcache components in the client device 150, the host server 100, and therelated components therein are described, respectively, in detail withfurther reference to the examples of FIG. 2-5.

In one embodiment, client devices 150 communicate with the host server100 and/or the application server 110 over network 106, which can be acellular network and/or a broadband network. To facilitate overalltraffic management between devices 150 and various applicationservers/content providers 110 to implement network (bandwidthutilization) and device resource (e.g., battery consumption), the hostserver 100 can communicate with the application server/providers 110over the network 108, which can include the Internet (e.g., a broadbandnetwork).

In general, the networks 106 and/or 108, over which the client devices150, the host server 100, and/or application server 110 communicate, maybe a cellular network, a broadband network, a telephonic network, anopen network, such as the Internet, or a private network, such as anintranet and/or the extranet, or any combination thereof. For example,the Internet can provide file transfer, remote log in, email, news, RSS,cloud-based services, instant messaging, visual voicemail, push mail,VoIP, and other services through any known or convenient protocol, suchas, but is not limited to the TCP/IP protocol, UDP, HTTP, DNS, FTP,UPnP, NSF, ISDN, PDH, RS-232, SDH, SONET, etc.

The networks 106 and/or 108 can be any collection of distinct networksoperating wholly or partially in conjunction to provide connectivity tothe client devices 150 and the host server 100 and may appear as one ormore networks to the serviced systems and devices. In one embodiment,communications to and from the client devices 150 can be achieved by, anopen network, such as the Internet, or a private network, broadbandnetwork, such as an intranet and/or the extranet. In one embodiment,communications can be achieved by a secure communications protocol, suchas secure sockets layer (SSL), or transport layer security (TLS).

In addition, communications can be achieved via one or more networks,such as, but are not limited to, one or more of WiMax, a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a Personal areanetwork (PAN), a Campus area network (CAN), a Metropolitan area network(MAN), a Wide area network (WAN), a Wireless wide area network (WWAN),or any broadband network, and further enabled with technologies such as,by way of example, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM),Personal Communications Service (PCS), Bluetooth, WiFi, Fixed WirelessData, 2G, 2.5G, 3G (e.g., WCDMA/UMTS based 3G networks), 4G,IMT-Advanced, pre-4G, LTE Advanced, mobile WiMax, WiMax 2,WirelessMAN-Advanced networks, enhanced data rates for GSM evolution(EDGE), General packet radio service (GPRS), enhanced GPRS, iBurst,UMTS, HSPDA, HSUPA, HSPA, HSPA+, UMTS-TDD, 1xRTT, EV-DO, messagingprotocols such as, TCP/IP, SMS, MMS, extensible messaging and presenceprotocol (XMPP), real time messaging protocol (RTMP), instant messagingand presence protocol (IMPP), instant messaging, USSD, IRC, or any otherwireless data networks, broadband networks, or messaging protocols.

With more detailed description below, and with particular reference toFIGS. 2E and 3E, one or more embodiments disclosed herein can provideapplication programing interfaces (APIs) and API extensions to 3rd-partyapplications to, for example, optimize and/or minimize application datatraffic.

It is noted that, for convenience, a client (e.g., local local proxy105, 175, 275) of the distributed caching system can be referred toherein as an “open channel client”, or “OC client.” Similarly, a server(e.g., host server 111, 100, 300 hosting proxy server 113, 145, 325) ofthe distributed traffic management, optimization, and/or caching systemcan be referred to herein as the host server, the proxy server, or “openchannel server”, or “OC server.” The local proxy and the proxy serverindividually or together implementing the distributed trafficmanagement, minimizing, optimization, and/or caching techniques(including the Signal Optimization and Extended Caching techniques) canbe referred to as “open channel” or “OC.”

In general, the present embodiments can be applicable any third-partyapplications in the marketplace (e.g., Apple, Google Play, BlackberryIntel Application market place). For example, the present embodiment maybring benefit in reducing data traffic for messaging applications, andas one example, utilizing the Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) fordevelopers or other similar services.

The present disclosure includes so-called “Open Channel (OC) Push,” orPush services provided by the host server or proxy server, which in thecontext of reducing application traffic (e.g., via the traffic shapingengine 375, FIG. 3E, and especially the alignment module 378, thebatching module 377; or via the traffic shaping engine 255, FIG. 2E, andespecially the alignment module 256, the batching module 257, furtherintroduced below), includes, for example:

(1) Provide an API which is GCM-compatible, or compatible with otherservices which facilitates developers to send data from their servers totheir mobile applications, both in terms of the API and thefunctionality. This can offer app developers functionality use of thiswithout having to change (and, in some examples, not even re-test) theirapplications. These services, in general provide functionalities to senda message, usually lightweight, which alerts the mobile application thatthere is new content to be retrieved from the server, for example.

(2) Provide extensions to this API, which provide guidance toOptimization to allow better opportunities to minimize traffic.

For example, some embodiments enable receiving (e.g., via API) of aDelivery Window (e.g., a timing window) guidance for push notifications,which would allow the proxy server to clump (e.g., “align” or “batch”)(e.g., via the traffic shaping engine 375, FIG. 3E, the traffic shapingengine 255, FIG. 2E) traffic up to the timing parameter limits of thedelivery window.

For example, some embodiments enable receiving of foreground(FG)/background (BG) guidance for push notifications, e.g., allowing theapplication to provide guidance (e.g., to traffic shaping engines 255and/or 375) to skip notification if application is in background.

Further, some embodiments provide receiving of Screen ON/Screen OFF, ordevice backlight guidance for push notification, allowing the app toprovide guidance (e.g., to traffic shaping engines 255 and/or 375) toskip push notification if screen is OFF.

Additionally, some embodiments enable (e.g., to traffic shaping engines255 and/or 375) a way for applications to be notified if screen isturned on and/or application goes to FG.

In some examples, the local proxy or a third party (e.g., 3rd party app)provides delivery window (e.g., timing) guidance. Note that the deliverywindow can be a timing window or a timing instance.

It is noted that the above-mentioned are just examples of extensionsthat API or API extensions of the current embodiments, and that therecan be other suitable extensions as well.

(3) Provide extensions to this API to allow a premium Push service. Insome embodiments, subscriber tiering and reporting functionalities canbe provided in the clumping (e.g., data/traffic batching or aligning)context (e.g., as performed by traffic shaping engines 255 and/or 375).

Some embodiments can include implementations of Return receipts. Someexample forms include:

i. Application is notified when the local proxy delivers the pushnotification to the app client.

ii. Application client gets the push notification, and has an API toconfirm that it has displayed in on the screen.

Also, some embodiments can include implementations of High prioritydelivery. For example, the Application can specify priority (e.g.,1=Normal, 2=High, 3=Extreme). In an additional or alternativeembodiment, Subscriber (or enterprise) would need to have specialcharging plan in place with carriers.

According to some embodiments, the host server or proxy server can alsouse the above to increase priority. For example, in one embodiment, APIcan be extended to allow special traffic reporting.

It is noted that the present disclosure can also include the specificcontext within which the 3rd party applications providing information(e.g., via an API and that is GCM compatible, or compatible with othersimilar services) occurs.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example diagram of a system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to another embodiment of thesubject matter described herein. FIG. 1B illustrates a proxy and cachesystem that is distributed between the host server and device whichfacilitates network traffic management between a device, an applicationserver or content provider, or other servers such as an ad server,promotional content server, or an e-coupon server for resourceconservation and content caching.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1B, the proxy and cache system isdistributed between the host server 100 and device 150 which facilitatesnetwork traffic management between the device 150 and an applicationserver or content provider 110, or other servers such as an ad server140A, promotional content server 140B, or an e-coupon server 140C forresource conservation and content caching. The proxy system distributedamong the host server 100 and the device 150 can further monitor mobileapplication activities for malicious traffic on a mobile device and/orautomatically generate and/or distribute policy information regardingmalicious traffic in a wireless network.

The distributed proxy and/or cache system (e.g., (distributed) trafficoptimizer, traffic management system, (distributed) content cachingmechanism for traffic alleviation) (e.g., (distributed) trafficoptimizer, traffic management system, (distributed) content cachingmechanism for traffic alleviation) can include, for example, the proxyserver 145 (e.g., remote proxy) and the server cache, 135 components onthe server side. The server-side proxy 145 and cache 135 can, asillustrated, reside internal to the host server 100. In addition, theproxy server 145 and cache 135 on the server-side can be partially orwholly external to the host server 100 and in communication via one ormore of the networks 106 and 108. For example, the proxy server 145 maybe external to the host server and the server cache 135 may bemaintained at the host server 100. Alternatively, the proxy server 145may be within the host server 100 while the server cache is external tothe host server 100. In addition, each of the proxy server 145 and thecache 135 may be partially internal to the host server 100 and partiallyexternal to the host server 100. The application server/content provider110 can by any server including third party servers or service/contentproviders further including advertisement, promotional content,publication, or electronic coupon servers or services. Similarly,separate advertisement servers 140A, promotional content servers 140B,and/or e-Coupon servers 140C as application servers or content providersare illustrated by way of example.

The distributed system can also, include, in one embodiment, client-sidecomponents, including by way of example but not limitation, a localproxy 175 (e.g., a mobile client on a mobile device) and/or a localcache 185, which can, as illustrated, reside internal to the device 150(e.g., a mobile device).

In addition, the client-side proxy 175 and local cache 185 can bepartially or wholly external to the device 150 and in communication viaone or more of the networks 106 and 108. For example, the local proxy175 may be external to the device 150 and the local cache 185 may bemaintained at the device 150. Alternatively, the local proxy 175 may bewithin the device 150 while the local cache 185 is external to thedevice 150. In addition, each of the proxy 175 and the cache 185 may bepartially internal to the host server 100 and partially external to thehost server 100.

In one embodiment, the distributed system can include an optionalcaching proxy server 199. The caching proxy server 199 can be acomponent which is operated by the application server/content provider110, the host server 100, or a network service provider 114, and or anycombination of the above to facilitate network traffic management fornetwork and device resource conservation. Proxy server 199 can be used,for example, for caching content to be provided to the device 150, forexample, from one or more of, the application server/provider 110, hostserver 100, and/or a network service provider 114. Content caching canalso be entirely or partially performed by the remote proxy 145 tosatisfy application requests or other data requests at the device 150.

In context aware traffic management and optimization for resourceconservation in a network (e.g., cellular or other wireless networks),characteristics of user activity/behavior and/or application behavior ata mobile device (e.g., any wireless device) 150 can be tracked by thelocal proxy 175 and communicated, over the network 106 to the proxyserver 145 component in the host server 100, for example, as connectionmetadata. The proxy server 145 which in turn is coupled to theapplication server/provider 110 provides content and data to satisfyrequests made at the device 150.

In addition, the local proxy 175 can identify and retrieve mobile deviceproperties, including one or more of, battery level, network that thedevice is registered on, radio state, or whether the mobile device isbeing used (e.g., interacted with by a user). In some instances, thelocal proxy 175 can delay, expedite (prefetch), and/or modify data priorto transmission to the proxy server 145, when appropriate, as will befurther detailed with references to the description associated with theexamples of FIG. 2-5.

The local database 185 can be included in the local proxy 175 or coupledto the local proxy 175 and can be queried for a locally stored responseto the data request prior to the data request being forwarded on to theproxy server 145. Locally cached responses can be used by the localproxy 175 to satisfy certain application requests of the mobile device150, by retrieving cached content stored in the cache storage 185, whenthe cached content is still valid.

Similarly, the proxy server 145 of the host server 100 can also delay,expedite, or modify data from the local proxy prior to transmission tothe content sources (e.g., the application server/content provider 110).In addition, the proxy server 145 uses device properties and connectionmetadata to generate rules for satisfying request of applications on themobile device 150. The proxy server 145 can gather real time trafficinformation about requests of applications for later use in optimizingsimilar connections with the mobile device 150 or other mobile devices.

In general, the local proxy 175 and the proxy server 145 are transparentto the multiple applications executing on the mobile device. The localproxy 175 is generally transparent to the operating system or platformof the mobile device and may or may not be specific to devicemanufacturers. In some instances, the local proxy 175 is optionallycustomizable in part or in whole to be device specific. In someembodiments, the local proxy 175 may be bundled into a wireless model, afirewall, and/or a router.

In one embodiment, the host server 100 can in some instances, utilizethe store and forward functions of a short message service center (SMSC)114, such as that provided by the network service provider, incommunicating with the device 150 in achieving network trafficmanagement. Note that 114 can also utilize any other type of alternativechannel including USSD or other network control mechanisms. The hostserver 100 can forward content or HTTP responses to the SMSC 114 suchthat it is automatically forwarded to the device 150 if available, andfor subsequent forwarding if the device 150 is not currently available.

In general, the disclosed distributed proxy and/or cache system (e.g.,(distributed) traffic optimizer, traffic management system,(distributed) content caching mechanism for traffic alleviation) (e.g.,(distributed) traffic optimizer, traffic management system,(distributed) content caching mechanism for traffic alleviation) allowsoptimization of network usage, for example, by serving requests from thelocal cache 185, the local proxy 175 reduces the number of requests thatneed to be satisfied over the network 106. Further, the local proxy 175and the proxy server 145 may filter irrelevant data from thecommunicated data. In addition, the local proxy 175 and the proxy server145 can also accumulate low priority data and send it in batches toavoid the protocol overhead of sending individual data fragments. Thelocal proxy 175 and the proxy server 145 can also compress or transcodethe traffic, reducing the amount of data sent over the network 106and/or 108. The signaling traffic in the network 106 and/or 108 can bereduced, as the networks are now used less often and the network trafficcan be synchronized among individual applications.

With respect to the battery life of the mobile device 150, by servingapplication or content requests from the local cache 185, the localproxy 175 can reduce the number of times the radio module is powered up.The local proxy 175 and the proxy server 145 can work in conjunction toaccumulate low priority data and send it in batches to reduce the numberof times and/or amount of time when the radio is powered up. The localproxy 175 can synchronize the network use by performing the batched datatransfer for all connections simultaneously.

FIG. 1C illustrates an example diagram of the logical architecture of adistributed proxy and cache system for providing APIs and API extensionsto third party applications for optimizing and minimizing applicationtraffic according to another embodiment of the subject matter describedherein. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1C, the distributed systemcan include, for example the following components:

Client Side Proxy 175: a component installed in the Smartphone, mobiledevice or wireless device 150 that interfaces with device's operatingsystem, as well as with data services and applications installed in thedevice. The client side proxy 175 is typically compliant with and ableto operate with standard or state of the art networking protocols.Additional components and features of the client-side proxy 175 areillustrated with further references to the examples of FIGS. 2A and 2B.

The server side proxy 145 can include one or more servers that caninterface with third party application servers (e.g., 199), mobileoperator's network (which can be proxy 199 or an additional server thatis not illustrated) and/or the client side proxy 175. In general, theserver side proxy 145 can be compliant with and is generally able tooperate with standard or state of the art networking protocols and/orspecifications for interacting with mobile network elements and/or thirdparty servers. Additional components and features of the server-sideproxy 145 are illustrated with further references to the examples ofFIGS. 3A and 3B.

Reporting and Usage Analytics Server 174: The Reporting and UsageAnalytics system or component 174 can collect information from theclient side 175 and/or the server side 145 and provides the necessarytools for producing reports and usage analytics can used for analyzingtraffic and signaling data. Such analytics can be used by the proxysystem in managing/reducing network traffic or by the network operatorin monitoring their networks for possible improvements and enhancements.Note that the reporting and usage analytics system/component 174 asillustrated, may be a server separate from the server-side proxy 145, orit may be a component of the server-side proxy 145, residing partiallyor wholly therein.

FIG. 1D illustrates an example diagram showing the architecture ofclient side components in a distributed proxy and cache system forproviding APIs and API extensions to third party applications foroptimizing and minimizing application traffic according to anotherembodiment of the subject matter described herein. In the embodimentillustrated in FIG. 1D, the client side components 175 can includesoftware components or agents installed on the mobile device thatenables traffic optimization and performs the related functionalities onthe client side. Components of the client side proxy 175 can operatetransparently for end users and applications 163. The client side proxy175 can be installed on mobile devices for optimization to take place,and it can effectuate changes on the data routes. Once data routing ismodified, the client side proxy 175 can respond to application requeststo service providers or host servers, in addition to or instead ofletting those applications 163 access data network directly. In general,applications 163 on the mobile device will not notice that the clientside proxy 175 is responding to their requests. Some example componentsof the client side proxy 175 are described as follows:

Device State Monitor 141: The device state monitor 141 can beresponsible for identifying several states and metrics in the device,such as network status, display status, battery level, etc. such thatthe remaining components in the client side proxy 175 can operate andmake decisions according to device state, acting in an optimal way ineach state.

Traffic Recognizer 142: The traffic recognizer 142 analyzes all trafficbetween the wireless device applications 163 and their respective hostservers in order to identify recurrent patterns. Supported transportprotocols include, for example, DNS, HTTP and HTTPS, such that trafficthrough those ports is directed to the client side proxy 175. Whileanalyzing traffic, the client side proxy 175 can identify recurringpolling patterns which can be candidates to be performed remotely by theserver side proxy 145, and send to the protocol optimizer 143.

Protocol Optimizer 143: The protocol optimizer 143 can implement thelogic of serving recurrent request from the local cache 185 instead ofallowing those request go over the network to the serviceprovider/application host server. One is its tasks is to eliminate orminimize the need to send requests to the network, positively affectingnetwork congestion and device battery life.

Local Cache 185: The local cache 185 can store responses to recurrentrequests, and can be used by the Protocol Optimizer 143 to sendresponses to the applications 163.

Traffic Scheduler 144: The traffic scheduler 144 can temporally movecommunications to optimize usage of device resources by unifyingkeep-alive signaling so that some or all of the different applications163 can send keep-alive messages at the same time (traffic pipelining).Traffic scheduler 144 may also decide to delay transmission of data thatis not relevant at a given time (for example, when the device is notactively used).

Policy Manager 149: The policy manager 149 can store and enforce trafficoptimization and reporting policies provisioned by a Policy ManagementServer (PMS). At the client side proxy 175 first start, trafficoptimization and reporting policies (policy profiles) that is to beenforced in a particular device can be provisioned by the PolicyManagement Server.

Watch Dog 147: The watch dog 147 can monitor the client side proxy 175operating availability. In case the client side proxy 175 is not workingdue to a failure or because it has been disabled, the watchdog 147 canreset DNS routing rules information and can restore original DNSsettings for the device to continue working until the client side proxy175 service is restored.

Reporting Agent 146: The reporting agent 146 can gather informationabout the events taking place in the device and sends the information tothe Reporting Server. Event details are stored temporarily in the deviceand transferred to reporting server only when the data channel state isactive. If the client side proxy 175 doesn't send records withintwenty-four hours, the reporting agent 146 may attempt to open theconnection and send recorded entries or, in case there are no entries instorage, an empty reporting packet. All reporting settings areconfigured in the policy management server.

Push Client 148: The push client 148 can be responsible for the trafficto between the server side proxy 145 and the client side proxy 175. Thepush client 148 can send out service requests like content updaterequests and policy update requests, and receives updates to thoserequests from the server side proxy 145. In addition, push client 148can send data to a reporting server (e.g., the reporting and/or usageanalytics system which may be internal to or external to the server sideproxy 145).

The proxy server 199 has a wide variety of uses, from speeding up a webserver by caching repeated requests, to caching web, DNS and othernetwork lookups for a group of clients sharing network resources. Theproxy server 199 is optional. The distributed proxy and cache system(145 and/or 175) allows for a flexible proxy configuration using eitherthe proxy 199, additional proxy(s) in operator's network, or integratingboth proxies 199 and an operator's or other third-party's proxy.

FIG. 1E illustrates a diagram of the example components on the serverside of the distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIs andAPI extensions to third party applications for optimizing and minimizingapplication traffic according to another embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1E, theserver side 145 of the distributed system can include, for example arelay server 142, which interacts with a traffic harmonizer 144, apolling server 145 and/or a policy management server 143. Each of thevarious components can communicate with the client side proxy 175, orother third party (e.g., application server/service provider 110 and/orother proxy 199) and/or a reporting and usage analytics system. Someexample components of the server side proxy 145 is described as follows:

Relay Server 142: The relay server 142 is the routing agent in thedistributed proxy architecture. The relay server 142 manages connectionsand communications with components on the client-side proxy 175installed on devices and provides an administrative interface forreports, provisioning, platform setup, and so on.

Notification Server 141: The notification server 141 is a module able toconnect to an operator's SMSC gateways and deliver SMS notifications tothe client-side proxy 175. SMS notifications can be used when an IP linkis not currently active, in order to avoid the client-side proxy 175from activating a connection over the wireless data channel, thusavoiding additional signaling traffic. However, if the IP connectionhappens to be open for some other traffic, the notification server 141can use it for sending the notifications to the client-side proxy 175.The user database can store operational data including endpoint(MSISDN), organization and Notification server 141 gateway for eachresource (URIs or URLs).

Traffic Harmonizer 144: The traffic harmonizer 144 can be responsiblefor communication between the client-side proxy 175 and the pollingserver 145. The traffic harmonizer 144 connects to the polling server145 directly or through the data storage 130, and to the client over anyopen or proprietary protocol such as the 7TP, implemented for trafficoptimization. The traffic harmonizer 144 can be also responsible fortraffic pipelining on the server side: if there's cached content in thedatabase for the same client, this can be sent over to the client in onemessage.

Polling Server 145: The polling server 145 can poll third partyapplication servers on behalf of applications that are being optimized).If a change occurs (i.e. new data available) for an application, thepolling server 145 can report to the traffic harmonizer 144 which inturn sends a notification message to the client-side proxy 175 for it toclear the cache and allow application to poll application serverdirectly.

Policy Management Server 143: The policy management server (PMS) 143allows administrators to configure and store policies for theclient-side proxies 175 (device clients). It also allows administratorsto notify the client-side proxies 175 about policy changes. Using thepolicy management server 143, each operator can configure the policiesto work in the most efficient way for the unique characteristics of eachparticular mobile operator's network.

Reporting and Usage Analytics Component: The Reporting and UsageAnalytics component or system collects information from the client side175 and/or from the server side 145, and provides the tools forproducing reports and usage analytics that operators can use foranalyzing application signaling and data consumption.

FIG. 1F illustrates an example diagram showing data flows betweenexample client side components in a distributed proxy and cache systemfor providing APIs and API extensions to third party applications foroptimizing and minimizing application traffic according to anotherembodiment of the subject matter described herein. In the embodimentillustrated in FIG. 1F, traffic from applications (e.g., App1, App2,App3 to AppN), client side proxy (e.g., local proxy) 175, IP RoutingTables (e.g., in the Android Operating System Layer), Network AccessLayer and Wireless Network are depicted.

In one implementation, non-optimized application traffic flow (1), suchas traffic from App1, can completely bypass the client side proxy 175components and proceed directly through the operating system layer(e.g., the Android OS layer) and Network Access Layer to the wirelessnetwork. Traffic that that is not optimized can include, but is notlimited to: rich media, like video and audio, as well as traffic fromnetworks and applications that has been configured to bypassoptimization and traffic pending optimization, and the like. In oneembodiment, all traffic can be configured to bypass the clientside/server side proxy.

In another implementation, optimized application traffic (2), such astraffic from App2, can be redirected from the application to the clientside proxy 175. By default, this can be traffic on ports 80 (HTTP) and53 (DNS), and selected traffic on port 443 (HTTPS), for example.However, traffic to other ports can be configured to be directed to theclient side proxy.

In yet another implementation, traffic flow (3) can be between theclient side proxy 175 and the origin servers (e.g., content server 110)via the Internet and/or between the client side proxy 175 and the serverside proxy (e.g., proxy server) 145.

FIG. 2A depicts a block diagram illustrating an example of client-sidecomponents in a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to another embodiment of thesubject matter described herein. FIG. 2A depicts a block diagramillustrating an example of client-side components in a distributed proxyand cache system residing on a device 250 that manages traffic in awireless network for resource conservation, content caching, and/ortraffic management. The client-side proxy (or local proxy 275) canfurther categorize mobile traffic and/or implement delivery policiesbased on application behavior, content priority, user activity, and/oruser expectations. The client-side components can further facilitateusing a user as an end point for profiling and optimizing the deliveryof content and data in a wireless network.

The device 250, which can be a portable or mobile device (e.g., anywireless device), such as a portable phone, generally includes, forexample, a network interface 208 an operating system 204, a context API206, and mobile applications which may be proxy-unaware 210 orproxy-aware 220. Note that the device 250 is specifically illustrated inthe example of FIG. 2 as a mobile device, such is not a limitation andthat device 250 may be any wireless, broadband, portable/mobile ornon-portable device able to receive, transmit signals to satisfy datarequests over a network including wired or wireless networks (e.g.,WiFi, cellular, Bluetooth, LAN, WAN, etc.).

The network interface 208 can be a networking module that enables thedevice 250 to mediate data in a network with an entity that is externalto the host server 250, through any known and/or convenientcommunications protocol supported by the host and the external entity.The network interface 208 can include one or more of a network adaptorcard, a wireless network interface card (e.g., SMS interface, WiFiinterface, interfaces for various generations of mobile communicationstandards including but not limited to 2G, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, LTE, etc.),Bluetooth, or whether or not the connection is via a router, an accesspoint, a wireless router, a switch, a multilayer switch, a protocolconverter, a gateway, a bridge, a bridge router, a hub, a digital mediareceiver, and/or a repeater.

Device 250 can further include, client-side components of thedistributed proxy and cache system which can include, a local proxy 275(e.g., a mobile client of a mobile device) and a cache 285. In oneembodiment, the local proxy 275 includes a user activity module 215, aproxy API 225, a request/transaction manager 235, a caching policymanager 245 having an application protocol module 248, a traffic shapingengine 255, and/or a connection manager 265. The traffic shaping engine255 may further include an alignment module 256 and/or a batching module257, the connection manager 265 may further include a radio controller266. The request/transaction manager 235 can further include anapplication behavior detector 236 and/or a prioritization engine 241,the application behavior detector 236 may further include a patterndetector 237 and/or and application profile generator 239. Additional orless components/modules/engines can be included in the local proxy 275and each illustrated component.

As used herein, a “module,” “a manager,” a “handler,” a “detector,” an“interface,” a “controller,” a “normalizer,” a “generator,” an“invalidator,” or an “engine” includes a general purpose, dedicated orshared processor and, typically, firmware or software modules that areexecuted by the processor. Depending upon implementation-specific orother considerations, the module, manager, handler, detector, interface,controller, normalizer, generator, invalidator, or engine can becentralized or its functionality distributed. The module, manager,handler, detector, interface, controller, normalizer, generator,invalidator, or engine can include general or special purpose hardware,firmware, or software embodied in a computer-readable (storage) mediumfor execution by the processor.

As used herein, a computer-readable medium or computer-readable storagemedium is intended to include all mediums that are statutory (e.g., inthe United States, under 35 U.S.C. 101), and to specifically exclude allmediums that are non-statutory in nature to the extent that theexclusion is necessary for a claim that includes the computer-readable(storage) medium to be valid. Known statutory computer-readable mediumsinclude hardware (e.g., registers, random access memory (RAM),non-volatile (NV) storage, to name a few), but may or may not be limitedto hardware.

In one embodiment, a portion of the distributed proxy and cache systemfor network traffic management resides in or is in communication withdevice 250, including local proxy 275 (mobile client) and/or cache 285.The local proxy 275 can provide an interface on the device 250 for usersto access device applications and services including email, IM, voicemail, visual voicemail, feeds, Internet, games, productivity tools, orother applications, etc.

The proxy 275 is generally application independent and can be used byapplications (e.g., both proxy-aware and proxy-unaware applications 210and 220 or mobile applications) to open TCP connections to a remoteserver (e.g., the server 100 in the examples of FIG. 1A-1B and/or serverproxy 145/325 shown in the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A). In someinstances, the local proxy 275 includes a proxy API 225 which can beoptionally used to interface with proxy-aware applications 220 (orapplications (e.g., mobile applications) on a mobile device (e.g., anywireless device)).

The applications 210 and 220 can generally include any user application,widgets, software, HTTP-based application, web browsers, video or othermultimedia streaming or downloading application, video games, socialnetwork applications, email clients, RSS management applications,application stores, document management applications, productivityenhancement applications, etc. The applications can be provided with thedevice OS, by the device manufacturer, by the network service provider,downloaded by the user, or provided by others.

One embodiment of the local proxy 275 includes or is coupled to acontext API 206, as shown. The context API 206 may be a part of theoperating system 204 or device platform or independent of the operatingsystem 204, as illustrated. The operating system 204 can include anyoperating system including but not limited to, any previous, current,and/or future versions/releases of, Windows Mobile, iOS, Android,Symbian, Palm OS, Brew MP, Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), Blackberry, etc.

The context API 206 may be a plug-in to the operating system 204 or aparticular client/application on the device 250. The context API 206 candetect signals indicative of user or device activity, for example,sensing motion, gesture, device location, changes in device location,device backlight, keystrokes, clicks, activated touch screen, mouseclick or detection of other pointer devices. The context API 206 can becoupled to input devices or sensors on the device 250 to identify thesesignals. Such signals can generally include input received in responseto explicit user input at an input device/mechanism at the device 250and/or collected from ambient signals/contextual cues detected at or inthe vicinity of the device 250 (e.g., light, motion, piezoelectric,etc.).

In one embodiment, the user activity module 215 interacts with thecontext API 206 to identify, determine, infer, detect, compute, predict,and/or anticipate, characteristics of user activity on the device 250.Various inputs collected by the context API 206 can be aggregated by theuser activity module 215 to generate a profile for characteristics ofuser activity. Such a profile can be generated by the user activitymodule 215 with various temporal characteristics. For instance, useractivity profile can be generated in real-time for a given instant toprovide a view of what the user is doing or not doing at a given time(e.g., defined by a time window, in the last minute, in the last 30seconds, etc.), a user activity profile can also be generated for a‘session’ defined by an application or web page that describes thecharacteristics of user behavior with respect to a specific task theyare engaged in on the device 250, or for a specific time period (e.g.,for the last 2 hours, for the last 5 hours).

Additionally, characteristic profiles can be generated by the useractivity module 215 to depict a historical trend for user activity andbehavior (e.g., 1 week, 1 mo., 2 mo., etc.). Such historical profilescan also be used to deduce trends of user behavior, for example, accessfrequency at different times of day, trends for certain days of the week(weekends or week days), user activity trends based on location data(e.g., IP address, GPS, or cell tower coordinate data) or changes inlocation data (e.g., user activity based on user location, or useractivity based on whether the user is on the go, or traveling outside ahome region, etc.) to obtain user activity characteristics.

In one embodiment, user activity module 215 can detect and track useractivity with respect to applications, documents, files, windows, icons,and folders on the device 250. For example, the user activity module 215can detect when an application or window (e.g., a web browser or anyother type of application) has been exited, closed, minimized,maximized, opened, moved into the foreground, or into the background,multimedia content playback, etc.

In one embodiment, characteristics of the user activity on the device250 can be used to locally adjust behavior of the device (e.g., mobiledevice or any wireless device) to optimize its resource consumption suchas battery/power consumption and more generally, consumption of otherdevice resources including memory, storage, and processing power. In oneembodiment, the use of a radio on a device can be adjusted based oncharacteristics of user behavior (e.g., by the radio controller 266 ofthe connection manager 265) coupled to the user activity module 215. Forexample, the radio controller 266 can turn the radio on or off, based oncharacteristics of the user activity on the device 250. In addition, theradio controller 266 can adjust the power mode of the radio (e.g., to bein a higher power mode or lower power mode) depending on characteristicsof user activity.

In one embodiment, characteristics of the user activity on device 250can also be used to cause another device (e.g., other computers, amobile device, a wireless device, or a non-portable device) or server(e.g., host server 100 and 300 in the examples of FIG. 1A-B and FIG. 3A)which can communicate (e.g., via a cellular or other network) with thedevice 250 to modify its communication frequency with the device 250.The local proxy 275 can use the characteristics information of userbehavior determined by the user activity module 215 to instruct theremote device as to how to modulate its communication frequency (e.g.,decreasing communication frequency, such as data push frequency if theuser is idle, requesting that the remote device notify the device 250 ifnew data, changed, data, or data of a certain level of importancebecomes available, etc.).

In one embodiment, the user activity module 215 can, in response todetermining that user activity characteristics indicate that a user isactive after a period of inactivity, request that a remote device (e.g.,server host server 100 and 300 in the examples of FIG. 1A-B and FIG. 3A)send the data that was buffered as a result of the previously decreasedcommunication frequency.

In addition, or in alternative, the local proxy 275 can communicate thecharacteristics of user activity at the device 250 to the remote device(e.g., host server 100 and 300 in the examples of FIG. 1A-B and FIG. 3A)and the remote device determines how to alter its own communicationfrequency with the device 250 for network resource conservation andconservation of device 250 resources.

One embodiment of the local proxy 275 further includes arequest/transaction manager 235, which can detect, identify, intercept,process, manage, data requests initiated on the device 250, for example,by applications 210 and/or 220, and/or directly/indirectly by a userrequest. The request/transaction manager 235 can determine how and whento process a given request or transaction, or a set ofrequests/transactions, based on transaction characteristics.

The request/transaction manager 235 can prioritize requests ortransactions made by applications and/or users at the device 250, forexample by the prioritization engine 241. Importance or priority ofrequests/transactions can be determined by the request/transactionmanager 235 by applying a rule set, for example, according to timesensitivity of the transaction, time sensitivity of the content in thetransaction, time criticality of the transaction, time criticality ofthe data transmitted in the transaction, and/or time criticality orimportance of an application making the request.

In addition, transaction characteristics can also depend on whether thetransaction was a result of user-interaction or other user-initiatedaction on the device (e.g., user interaction with a application (e.g., amobile application)). In general, a time critical transaction caninclude a transaction resulting from a user-initiated data transfer, andcan be prioritized as such. Transaction characteristics can also dependon the amount of data that will be transferred or is anticipated to betransferred as a result of the requested transaction. For example, theconnection manager 265, can adjust the radio mode (e.g., high power orlow power mode via the radio controller 266) based on the amount of datathat will need to be transferred.

In addition, the radio controller 266/connection manager 265 can adjustthe radio power mode (high or low) based on time criticality/sensitivityof the transaction. The radio controller 266 can trigger the use of highpower radio mode when a time-critical transaction (e.g., a transactionresulting from a user-initiated data transfer, an application running inthe foreground, any other event meeting a certain criteria) is initiatedor detected.

In general, the priorities can be set by default, for example, based ondevice platform, device manufacturer, operating system, etc. Prioritiescan alternatively or in additionally be set by the particularapplication; for example, the Facebook application (e.g., a mobileapplication) can set its own priorities for various transactions (e.g.,a status update can be of higher priority than an add friend request ora poke request, a message send request can be of higher priority than amessage delete request, for example), an email client or IM chat clientmay have its own configurations for priority. The prioritization engine241 may include set of rules for assigning priority.

The prioritization engine 241 can also track network providerlimitations or specifications on application or transaction priority indetermining an overall priority status for a request/transaction.Furthermore, priority can in part or in whole be determined by userpreferences, either explicit or implicit. A user, can in general, setpriorities at different tiers, such as, specific priorities forsessions, or types, or applications (e.g., a browsing session, a gamingsession, versus an IM chat session, the user may set a gaming session toalways have higher priority than an IM chat session, which may havehigher priority than web-browsing session). A user can setapplication-specific priorities, (e.g., a user may set Facebook-relatedtransactions to have a higher priority than LinkedIn-relatedtransactions), for specific transaction types (e.g., for all sendmessage requests across all applications to have higher priority thanmessage delete requests, for all calendar-related events to have a highpriority, etc.), and/or for specific folders.

The prioritization engine 241 can track and resolve conflicts inpriorities set by different entities. For example, manual settingsspecified by the user may take precedence over device OS settings,network provider parameters/limitations (e.g., set in default for anetwork service area, geographic locale, set for a specific time of day,or set based on service/fee type) may limit any user-specified settingsand/or application-set priorities. In some instances, a manualsynchronization request received from a user can override some, most, orall priority settings in that the requested synchronization is performedwhen requested, regardless of the individually assigned priority or anoverall priority ranking for the requested action.

Priority can be specified and tracked internally in any known and/orconvenient manner, including but not limited to, a binaryrepresentation, a multi-valued representation, a graded representationand all are considered to be within the scope of the disclosedtechnology.

TABLE I Change Change (initiated on device) Priority (initiated onserver) Priority Send email High Receive email High Delete email LowEdit email Often not possible (Un)read email Low to sync (Low ifpossible) Move message Low New email in Low Read more High deleted itemsDownload High Delete an email Low attachment (Un)Read an email Low NewCalendar event High Move messages Low Edit/change High Any calendarchange High Calendar event Any contact change High Add a contact HighWipe/lock device High Edit a contact High Settings change High Searchcontacts High Any folder change High Change a setting High Connectorrestart High (if no Manual send/receive High changes nothing is sent) IMstatus change Medium Social Network Status Medium Updates Auction outbidor High Sever Weather Alerts High change notification Weather UpdatesLow News Updates Low

Table I above shows, for illustration purposes, some examples oftransactions with examples of assigned priorities in a binaryrepresentation scheme. Additional assignments are possible foradditional types of events, requests, transactions, and as previouslydescribed, priority assignments can be made at more or less granularlevels, e.g., at the session level or at the application level, etc.

As shown by way of example in the above table, in general, lowerpriority requests/transactions can include, updating message status asbeing read, unread, deleting of messages, deletion of contacts; higherpriority requests/transactions, can in some instances include, statusupdates, new IM chat message, new email, calendar eventupdate/cancellation/deletion, an event in a mobile gaming session, orother entertainment related events, a purchase confirmation through aweb purchase or online, request to load additional or download content,contact book related events, a transaction to change a device setting,location-aware or location-based events/transactions, or any otherevents/request/transactions initiated by a user or where the user isknown to be, expected to be, or suspected to be waiting for a response,etc.

Inbox pruning events (e.g., email, or any other types of messages), aregenerally considered low priority and absent other impending events,generally will not trigger use of the radio on the device 250.Specifically, pruning events to remove old email or other content can be‘piggy backed’ with other communications if the radio is not otherwiseon, at the time of a scheduled pruning event. For example, if the userhas preferences set to ‘keep messages for 7 days old,’ then instead ofpowering on the device radio to initiate a message delete from thedevice 250 the moment that the message has exceeded 7 days old, themessage is deleted when the radio is powered on next. If the radio isalready on, then pruning may occur as regularly scheduled.

The request/transaction manager 235, can use the priorities for requests(e.g., by the prioritization engine 241) to manage outgoing traffic fromthe device 250 for resource optimization (e.g., to utilize the deviceradio more efficiently for battery conservation). For example,transactions/requests below a certain priority ranking may not triggeruse of the radio on the device 250 if the radio is not already switchedon, as controlled by the connection manager 265. In contrast, the radiocontroller 266 can turn on the radio such a request can be sent when arequest for a transaction is detected to be over a certain prioritylevel.

In one embodiment, priority assignments (such as that determined by thelocal proxy 275 or another device/entity) can be used cause a remotedevice to modify its communication with the frequency with the mobiledevice or wireless device. For example, the remote device can beconfigured to send notifications to the device 250 when data of higherimportance is available to be sent to the mobile device or wirelessdevice.

In one embodiment, transaction priority can be used in conjunction withcharacteristics of user activity in shaping or managing traffic, forexample, by the traffic shaping engine 255. For example, the trafficshaping engine 255 can, in response to detecting that a user is dormantor inactive, wait to send low priority transactions from the device 250,for a period of time. In addition, the traffic shaping engine 255 canallow multiple low priority transactions to accumulate for batchtransferring from the device 250 (e.g., via the batching module 257). Inone embodiment, the priorities can be set, configured, or readjusted bya user. For example, content depicted in Table I in the same or similarform can be accessible in a user interface on the device 250 and forexample, used by the user to adjust or view the priorities.

The batching module 257 can initiate batch transfer based on certaincriteria. For example, batch transfer (e.g., of multiple occurrences ofevents, some of which occurred at different instances in time) may occurafter a certain number of low priority events have been detected, orafter an amount of time elapsed after the first of the low priorityevent was initiated. In addition, the batching module 257 can initiatebatch transfer of the cumulated low priority events when a higherpriority event is initiated or detected at the device 250. Batchtransfer can otherwise be initiated when radio use is triggered foranother reason (e.g., to receive data from a remote device such as hostserver 100 or 300). In one embodiment, an impending pruning event(pruning of an inbox), or any other low priority events, can be executedwhen a batch transfer occurs.

In general, the batching capability can be disabled or enabled at theevent/transaction level, application level, or session level, based onany one or combination of the following: user configuration, devicelimitations/settings, manufacturer specification, network providerparameters/limitations, platform-specific limitations/settings, deviceOS settings, etc. In one embodiment, batch transfer can be initiatedwhen an application/window/file is closed out, exited, or moved into thebackground; users can optionally be prompted before initiating a batchtransfer; users can also manually trigger batch transfers.

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275 locally adjusts radio use on thedevice 250 by caching data in the cache 285. When requests ortransactions from the device 250 can be satisfied by content stored inthe cache 285, the radio controller 266 need not activate the radio tosend the request to a remote entity (e.g., the host server 100, 300, asshown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 3A or a content provider/application serversuch as the server/provider 110 shown in the examples of FIG. 1A andFIG. 1B). As such, the local proxy 275 can use the local cache 285 andthe cache policy manager 245 to locally store data for satisfying datarequests to eliminate or reduce the use of the device radio forconservation of network resources and device battery consumption.

In leveraging the local cache, once the request/transaction manager 225intercepts a data request by an application on the device 250, the localrepository 285 can be queried to determine if there is any locallystored response, and also determine whether the response is valid. Whena valid response is available in the local cache 285, the response canbe provided to the application on the device 250 without the device 250needing to access the cellular network or wireless broadband network.

If a valid response is not available, the local proxy 275 can query aremote proxy (e.g., the server proxy 325 of FIG. 3A) to determinewhether a remotely stored response is valid. If so, the remotely storedresponse (e.g., which may be stored on the server cache 135 or optionalcaching server 199 shown in the example of FIG. 1B) can be provided tothe mobile device, possibly without the mobile device 250 needing toaccess the cellular network, thus relieving consumption of networkresources.

If a valid cache response is not available, or if cache responses areunavailable for the intercepted data request, the local proxy 275, forexample, the caching policy manager 245, can send the data request to aremote proxy (e.g., server proxy 325 of FIG. 3A) which forwards the datarequest to a content source (e.g., application server/content provider110 of FIG. 1A) and a response from the content source can be providedthrough the remote proxy, as will be further described in thedescription associated with the example host server 300 of FIG. 3A. Thecache policy manager 245 can manage or process requests that use avariety of protocols, including but not limited to HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP,POP, SMTP, XMPP, and/or ActiveSync. The caching policy manager 245 canlocally store responses for data requests in the local database 285 ascache entries, for subsequent use in satisfying same or similar datarequests.

The caching policy manager 245 can request that the remote proxy monitorresponses for the data request and the remote proxy can notify thedevice 250 when an unexpected response to the data request is detected.In such an event, the cache policy manager 245 can erase or replace thelocally stored response(s) on the device 250 when notified of theunexpected response (e.g., new data, changed data, additional data,etc.) to the data request. In one embodiment, the caching policy manager245 is able to detect or identify the protocol used for a specificrequest, including but not limited to HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP, POP, SMTP,XMPP, and/or ActiveSync. In one embodiment, application specifichandlers (e.g., via the application protocol module 246 of the cachingpolicy manager 245) on the local proxy 275 allows for optimization ofany protocol that can be port mapped to a handler in the distributedproxy (e.g., port mapped on the proxy server 325 in the example of FIG.3A).

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275 notifies the remote proxy suchthat the remote proxy can monitor responses received for the datarequest from the content source for changed results prior to returningthe result to the device 250, for example, when the data request to thecontent source has yielded same results to be returned to the mobiledevice. In general, the local proxy 275 can simulate application serverresponses for applications on the device 250, using locally cachedcontent. This can prevent utilization of the cellular network fortransactions where new/changed data is not available, thus freeing upnetwork resources and preventing network congestion.

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275 includes an application behaviordetector 236 to track, detect, observe, monitor, applications (e.g.,proxy-aware and/or unaware applications 210 and 220) accessed orinstalled on the device 250. Application behaviors, or patterns indetected behaviors (e.g., via the pattern detector 237) of one or moreapplications accessed on the device 250 can be used by the local proxy275 to optimize traffic in a wireless network needed to satisfy the dataneeds of these applications.

For example, based on detected behavior of multiple applications, thetraffic shaping engine 255 can align content requests made by at leastsome of the applications over the network (wireless network) (e.g., viathe alignment module 256). The alignment module 256 can delay orexpedite some earlier received requests to achieve alignment. Whenrequests are aligned, the traffic shaping engine 255 can utilize theconnection manager to poll over the network to satisfy application datarequests. Content requests for multiple applications can be alignedbased on behavior patterns or rules/settings including, for example,content types requested by the multiple applications (audio, video,text, etc.), device (e.g., mobile or wireless device) parameters, and/ornetwork parameters/traffic conditions, network service providerconstraints/specifications, etc.

In one embodiment, the pattern detector 237 can detect recurrences inapplication requests made by the multiple applications, for example, bytracking patterns in application behavior. A tracked pattern caninclude, detecting that certain applications, as a background process,poll an application server regularly, at certain times of day, oncertain days of the week, periodically in a predictable fashion, with acertain frequency, with a certain frequency in response to a certaintype of event, in response to a certain type user query, frequency thatrequested content is the same, frequency with which a same request ismade, interval between requests, applications making a request, or anycombination of the above, for example.

Such recurrences can be used by traffic shaping engine 255 to offloadpolling of content from a content source (e.g., from an applicationserver/content provider 110 of FIG. 1A) that would result from theapplication requests that would be performed at the mobile device orwireless device 250 to be performed instead, by a proxy server (e.g.,proxy server 145 of FIG. 1B or proxy server 325 of FIG. 3A) remote fromthe device 250. Traffic shaping engine 255 can decide to offload thepolling when the recurrences match a rule. For example, there aremultiple occurrences or requests for the same resource that have exactlythe same content, or returned value, or based on detection of repeatabletime periods between requests and responses such as a resource that isrequested at specific times during the day. The offloading of thepolling can decrease the amount of bandwidth consumption needed by themobile device 250 to establish a wireless (cellular or other wirelessbroadband) connection with the content source for repetitive contentpolls.

As a result of the offloading of the polling, locally cached contentstored in the local cache 285 can be provided to satisfy data requestsat the device 250, when content change is not detected in the polling ofthe content sources. As such, when data has not changed, applicationdata needs can be satisfied without needing to enable radio use oroccupying cellular bandwidth in a wireless network. When data haschanged and/or new data has been received, the remote entity to whichpolling is offloaded, can notify the device 250. The remote entity maybe the host server 300 as shown in the example of FIG. 3A.

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275 can mitigate the need/use ofperiodic keep-alive messages (heartbeat messages) to maintain TCP/IPconnections, which can consume significant amounts of power thus havingdetrimental impacts on mobile device battery life. The connectionmanager 265 in the local proxy (e.g., the heartbeat manager 267) candetect, identify, and intercept any or all heartbeat (keep-alive)messages being sent from applications.

The heartbeat manager 267 can prevent any or all of these heartbeatmessages from being sent over the cellular, or other network, andinstead rely on the server component of the distributed proxy system(e.g., shown in FIG. 1B) to generate the and send the heartbeat messagesto maintain a connection with the backend (e.g., applicationserver/provider 110 in the example of FIG. 1A).

The local proxy 275 generally represents any one or a portion of thefunctions described for the individual managers, modules, and/orengines. The local proxy 275 and device 250 can include additional orless components; more or less functions can be included, in whole or inpart, without deviating from the novel art of the disclosure.

FIG. 2B depicts a block diagram illustrating a further example ofcomponents in a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to another embodiment of thesubject matter described herein. FIG. 2B depicts a block diagramillustrating a further example of components in the cache system shownin the example of FIG. 2A, which is capable of caching and adaptingcaching strategies for mobile application behavior and/or networkconditions, including detecting long poll requests and managing cachingof long polls.

In one embodiment, the caching policy manager 245 includes a metadatagenerator 203, a cache look-up engine 205, a cache appropriatenessdecision engine 246, a poll schedule generator 247, an applicationprotocol module 248, a cache or connect selection engine 249 and/or alocal cache invalidator 244. The cache appropriateness decision engine246 can further include a timing predictor 246A, a content predictor246B, a request analyzer 246C, and/or a response analyzer 246D, and thecache or connect selection engine 249 includes a response scheduler249A. The metadata generator 203 and/or the cache look-up engine 205 arecoupled to the cache 285 (or local cache) for modification or additionto cache entries or querying thereof.

The cache look-up engine 205 may further include an ID or URI filter205A, the local cache invalidator 244 may further include a TTL manager244A, and the poll schedule generator 247 may further include a scheduleupdate engine 247A and/or a time adjustment engine 247B. One embodimentof caching policy manager 245 includes an application cache policyrepository 243. In one embodiment, the application behavior detector 236includes a pattern detector 237, a poll interval detector 238, anapplication profile generator 239, and/or a priority engine 241. Thepoll interval detector 238 may further include a long poll detector 238Ahaving a response/request tracking engine 238B. The poll intervaldetector 238 may further include a long poll hunting detector 238C. Theapplication profile generator 239 can further include a response delayinterval tracker 239A.

The pattern detector 237, application profile generator 239, and thepriority engine 241 were also described in association with thedescription of the pattern detector shown in the example of FIG. 2A. Oneembodiment further includes an application profile repository 242 whichcan be used by the local proxy 275 to store information or metadataregarding application profiles (e.g., behavior, patterns, type of HTTPrequests, etc.)

The cache appropriateness decision engine 246 can detect, assess, ordetermine whether content from a content source (e.g., applicationserver/content provider 110 in the example of FIG. 1B) with which amobile device 250 interacts and has content that may be suitable forcaching. For example, the decision engine 246 can use information abouta request and/or a response received for the request initiated at themobile device 250 to determine cacheability, potential cacheability, ornon-cacheability. In some instances, the decision engine 246 caninitially verify whether a request is directed to a blacklisteddestination or whether the request itself originates from a blacklistedclient or application. If so, additional processing and analysis may notbe performed by the decision engine 246 and the request may be allowedto be sent over the air to the server to satisfy the request. The blacklisted destinations or applications/clients (e.g., mobile applications)can be maintained locally in the local proxy (e.g., in the applicationprofile repository 242) or remotely (e.g., in the proxy server 325 oranother entity).

In one embodiment, the decision engine 246, for example, via the requestanalyzer 246C, collects information about an application or clientrequest generated at the mobile device 250. The request information caninclude request characteristics information including, for example,request method. For example, the request method can indicate the type ofHTTP request generated by the mobile application or client. In oneembodiment, response to a request can be identified as cacheable orpotentially cacheable if the request method is a GET request or POSTrequest. Other types of requests (e.g., OPTIONS, HEAD, PUT, DELETE,TRACE, or CONNECT) may or may not be cached. In general, HTTP requestswith uncacheable request methods will not be cached.

Request characteristics information can further include informationregarding request size, for example. Responses to requests (e.g., HTTPrequests) with body size exceeding a certain size will not be cached.For example, cacheability can be determined if the information about therequest indicates that a request body size of the request does notexceed a certain size. In some instances, the maximum cacheable requestbody size can be set to 8092 bytes. In other instances, different valuesmay be used, dependent on network capacity or network operator specificsettings, for example.

In some instances, content from a given application server/contentprovider (e.g., the server/content provider 110 of FIG. 1B) isdetermined to be suitable for caching based on a set of criteria, forexample, criteria specifying time criticality of the content that isbeing requested from the content source. In one embodiment, the localproxy (e.g., the local proxy 175 or 275 of FIG. 1B and FIG. 2A) appliesa selection criteria to store the content from the host server which isrequested by an application as cached elements in a local cache on themobile device to satisfy subsequent requests made by the application.

The cache appropriateness decision engine 246, further based on detectedpatterns of requests sent from the mobile device 250 (e.g., by a mobileapplication or other types of clients on the device 250) and/or patternsof received responses, can detect predictability in requests and/orresponses. For example, the request characteristics informationcollected by the decision engine 246, (e.g., the request analyzer 246C)can further include periodicity information between a request and otherrequests generated by a same client on the mobile device or otherrequests directed to the same host (e.g., with similar or sameidentifier parameters).

Periodicity can be detected, by the decision engine 246 or the requestanalyzer 246C, when the request and the other requests generated by thesame client occur at a fixed rate or nearly fixed rate, or at a dynamicrate with some identifiable or partially or wholly reproducible changingpattern. If the requests are made with some identifiable pattern (e.g.,regular intervals, intervals having a detectable pattern, or trend(e.g., increasing, decreasing, constant, etc.) the timing predictor 246Acan determine that the requests made by a given application on a deviceis predictable and identify it to be potentially appropriate forcaching, at least from a timing standpoint.

An identifiable pattern or trend can generally include any applicationor client behavior which may be simulated either locally, for example,on the local proxy 275 on the mobile device 250 or simulated remotely,for example, by the proxy server 325 on the host 300, or a combinationof local and remote simulation to emulate application behavior.

In one embodiment, the decision engine 246, for example, via theresponse analyzer 246D, can collect information about a response to anapplication or client request generated at the mobile device 250. Theresponse is typically received from a server or the host of theapplication (e.g., mobile application) or client which sent the requestat the mobile device 250. In some instances, the mobile client orapplication can be the mobile version of an application (e.g., socialnetworking, search, travel management, voicemail, contact manager,email) or a web site accessed via a web browser or via a desktop client.

For example, response characteristics information can include anindication of whether transfer encoding or chunked transfer encoding isused in sending the response. In some instances, responses to HTTPrequests with transfer encoding or chunked transfer encoding are notcached, and therefore are also removed from further analysis. Therationale here is that chunked responses are usually large andnon-optimal for caching, since the processing of these transactions maylikely slow down the overall performance. Therefore, in one embodiment,cacheability or potential for cacheability can be determined whentransfer encoding is not used in sending the response.

In addition, the response characteristics information can include anassociated status code of the response which can be identified by theresponse analyzer 246D. In some instances, HTTP responses withuncacheable status codes are typically not cached. The response analyzer246D can extract the status code from the response and determine whetherit matches a status code which is cacheable or uncacheable. Somecacheable status codes include by way of example: 200-OK, 301-Redirect,302-Found, 303-See other, 304-Not Modified, 307 Temporary Redirect, or500-Internal server error. Some uncacheable status codes can include,for example, 403-Forbidden or 404-Not found.

In one embodiment, cacheability or potential for cacheability can bedetermined if the information about the response does not indicate anuncacheable status code or indicates a cacheable status code. If theresponse analyzer 246D detects an uncacheable status code associatedwith a given response, the specific transaction (request/response pair)may be eliminated from further processing and determined to beuncacheable on a temporary basis, a semi-permanent, or a permanentbasis. If the status code indicates cacheability, the transaction (e.g.,request and/or response pair) may be subject to further processing andanalysis to confirm cacheability, as shown in the example flow charts ofFIGS. 11-13.

Response characteristics information can also include response sizeinformation. In general, responses can be cached locally at the mobiledevice 250 if the responses do not exceed a certain size. In someinstances, the default maximum cached response size is set to 148 KB. Inother instances, the max cacheable response size may be different and/ordynamically adjusted based on operating conditions, network conditions,network capacity, user preferences, network operator requirements, orother application-specific, user specific, and/or device-specificreasons. In one embodiment, the response analyzer 246D can identify thesize of the response, and cacheability or potential for cacheability canbe determined if a given threshold or max value is not exceeded by theresponse size.

Furthermore, response characteristics information can include responsebody information for the response to the request and other response toother requests generated by a same client on the mobile device, ordirected to a same content host or application server. The response bodyinformation for the response and the other responses can be compared,for example, by the response analyzer 246D, to prevent the caching ofdynamic content (or responses with content that changes frequently andcannot be efficiently served with cache entries, such as financial data,stock quotes, news feeds, real-time sporting event activities, etc.),such as content that would no longer be relevant or up-to-date if servedfrom cached entries.

The cache appropriateness decision engine 246 (e.g., the contentpredictor 246B) can definitively identify repeatability or identifyindications of repeatability, potential repeatability, or predictabilityin responses received from a content source (e.g., the contenthost/application server 110 shown in the example of FIG. 1A-B).Repeatability can be detected by, for example, tracking at least tworesponses received from the content source and determines if the tworesponses are the same. For example, cacheability can be determined, bythe response analyzer 246D, if the response body information for theresponse and the other responses sent by the same mobile client ordirected to the same host/server are same or substantially the same. Thetwo responses may or may not be responses sent in response toconsecutive requests. In one embodiment, hash values of the responsesreceived for requests from a given application are used to determinerepeatability of content (with or without heuristics) for theapplication in general and/or for the specific request. Additional sameresponses may be required for some applications or under certaincircumstances.

Repeatability in received content need not be 100% ascertained. Forexample, responses can be determined to be repeatable if a certainnumber or a certain percentage of responses are the same, or similar.The certain number or certain percentage of same/similar responses canbe tracked over a select period of time, set by default or set based onthe application generating the requests (e.g., whether the applicationis highly dynamic with constant updates or less dynamic with infrequentupdates). Any indicated predictability or repeatability, or possiblerepeatability, can be utilized by the distributed system in cachingcontent to be provided to a requesting application or client on themobile device 250.

In one embodiment, for a long poll type request, the local proxy 175 canbegin to cache responses on a third request when the response delaytimes for the first two responses are the same, substantially the same,or detected to be increasing in intervals. In general, the receivedresponses for the first two responses should be the same, and uponverifying that the third response received for the third request is thesame (e.g., if R0=R1=R2), the third response can be locally cached onthe mobile device. Less or more same responses may be required to begincaching, depending on the type of application, type of data, type ofcontent, user preferences, or carrier/network operator specifications.

Increasing response delays with same responses for long polls canindicate a hunting period (e.g., a period in which theapplication/client on the mobile device is seeking the longest timebetween a request and response that a given network will allow, a timingdiagram showing timing characteristics is illustrated in FIG. 8), asdetected by the long poll hunting detector 238C of the applicationbehavior detector 236.

An example can be described below using T0, T1, T2, where T indicatesthe delay time between when a request is sent and when a response (e.g.,the response header) is detected/received for consecutive requests:

-   -   T0=Response0(t)−Request0(t)=180 s. (+/−tolerance)    -   T1=Response1(t)−Request1(t)=240 s. (+/−tolerance)    -   T2=Response2(t)−Request2(t)=500 s. (+/−tolerance)

In the example timing sequence shown above, T0<T1<T2, this may indicatea hunting pattern for a long poll when network timeout has not yet beenreached or exceeded. Furthermore, if the responses R0, R1, and R2received for the three requests are the same, R2 can be cached. In thisexample, R2 is cached during the long poll hunting period withoutwaiting for the long poll to settle, thus expediting response caching(e.g., this is optional accelerated caching behavior which can beimplemented for all or select applications).

As such, the local proxy 275 can specify information that can beextracted from the timing sequence shown above (e.g., polling schedule,polling interval, polling type) to the proxy server and begin cachingand to request the proxy server to begin polling and monitoring thesource (e.g., using any of T0, T1, T2 as polling intervals but typicallyT2, or the largest detected interval without timing out, and for whichresponses from the source is received will be sent to the proxy server325 of FIG. 3A for use in polling the content source (e.g., applicationserver/service provider 310)).

However, if the time intervals are detected to be getting shorter, theapplication (e.g., mobile application)/client may still be hunting for atime interval for which a response can be reliably received from thecontent source (e.g., application/server server/provider 110 or 310),and as such caching typically should not begin until therequest/response intervals indicate the same time interval or anincreasing time interval, for example, for a long poll type request.

An example of handling a detected decreasing delay can be describedbelow using T0, T1, T2, T3, and T4 where T indicates the delay timebetween when a request is sent and when a response (e.g., the responseheader) is detected/received for consecutive requests:

-   -   T0=Response0(t)−Request0(t)=160 s. (+/−tolerance)    -   T1=Response1(t)−Request1(t)=240 s. (+/−tolerance)    -   T2=Response2(t)−Request2(t)=500 s. (+/−tolerance)    -   T3=Time out at 700 s. (+/−tolerance)    -   T4=Response4(t)−Request4(t)=600 (+/−tolerance)

If a pattern for response delays T1<T2<T3>T4 is detected, as shown inthe above timing sequence (e.g., detected by the long poll huntingdetector 238C of the application behavior detector 236), it can bedetermined that T3 likely exceeded the network time out during a longpoll hunting period. In Request 3, a response likely was not receivedsince the connection was terminated by the network, application, server,or other reason before a response was sent or available. On Request 4(after T4), if a response (e.g., Response 4) is detected or received,the local proxy 275 can then use the response for caching (if thecontent repeatability condition is met). The local proxy can also use T4as the poll interval in the polling schedule set for the proxy server tomonitor/poll the content source.

Note that the above description shows that caching can begin while longpolls are in hunting mode in the event of detecting increasing responsedelays, as long as responses are received and not timed out for a givenrequest. This can be referred to as the optional accelerated cachingduring long poll hunting. Caching can also begin after the hunting mode(e.g., after the poll requests have settled to a constant or nearconstant delay value) has completed. Note that hunting may or may notoccur for long polls and when hunting occurs; the proxy 275 cangenerally detect this and determine whether to begin to cache during thehunting period (increasing intervals with same responses) or wait untilthe hunt settles to a stable value.

In one embodiment, the timing predictor 246A of the cacheappropriateness decision engine 246 can track timing of responsesreceived from outgoing requests from an application (e.g., mobileapplication) or client to detect any identifiable patterns which can bepartially wholly reproducible, such that locally cached responses can beprovided to the requesting client on the mobile device 250 in a mannerthat simulates content source (e.g., application server/content provider110 or 310) behavior. For example, the manner in which (e.g., from atiming standpoint) responses or content would be delivered to therequesting application/client on the device 250. This ensurespreservation of user experience when responses to application or mobileclient requests are served from a local and/or remote cache instead ofbeing retrieved/received directly from the content source (e.g.,application, content provider 110 or 310).

In one embodiment, the decision engine 246 or the timing predictor 246Adetermines the timing characteristics a given application (e.g., mobileapplication) or client from, for example, the request/response trackingengine 238B and/or the application profile generator 239 (e.g., theresponse delay interval tracker 239A). Using the timing characteristics,the timing predictor 246A determines whether the content received inresponse to the requests are suitable or are potentially suitable forcaching. For example, poll request intervals between two consecutiverequests from a given application can be used to determine whetherrequest intervals are repeatable (e.g., constant, near constant,increasing with a pattern, decreasing with a pattern, etc.) and can bepredicted and thus reproduced at least some of the times either exactlyor approximated within a tolerance level.

In some instances, the timing characteristics of a given request typefor a specific application, for multiple requests of an application, orfor multiple applications can be stored in the application profilerepository 242. The application profile repository 242 can generallystore any type of information or metadata regarding applicationrequest/response characteristics including timing patterns, timingrepeatability, content repeatability, etc.

The application profile repository 242 can also store metadataindicating the type of request used by a given application (e.g., longpolls, long-held HTTP requests, HTTP streaming, push, COMET push, etc.)Application profiles indicating request type by applications can be usedwhen subsequent same/similar requests are detected, or when requests aredetected from an application which has already been categorized. In thismanner, timing characteristics for the given request type or forrequests of a specific application which has been tracked and/oranalyzed, need not be reanalyzed.

Application profiles can be associated with a time-to-live (e.g., or adefault expiration time). The use of an expiration time for applicationprofiles, or for various aspects of an application or request's profilecan be used on a case by case basis. The time-to-live or actualexpiration time of application profile entries can be set to a defaultvalue or determined individually, or a combination thereof. Applicationprofiles can also be specific to wireless networks, physical networks,network operators, or specific carriers.

One embodiment includes an application blacklist manager 201. Theapplication blacklist manager 201 can be coupled to the applicationcache policy repository 243 and can be partially or wholly internal tolocal proxy or the caching policy manager 245. Similarly, the blacklistmanager 201 can be partially or wholly internal to local proxy or theapplication behavior detector 236. The blacklist manager 201 canaggregate, track, update, manage, adjust, or dynamically monitor a listof destinations of servers/host that are ‘blacklisted,’ or identified asnot cached, on a permanent or temporary basis. The blacklist ofdestinations, when identified in a request, can potentially be used toallow the request to be sent over the (cellular) network for servicing.Additional processing on the request may not be performed since it isdetected to be directed to a blacklisted destination.

Blacklisted destinations can be identified in the application cachepolicy repository 243 by address identifiers including specific URIs orpatterns of identifiers including URI patterns. In general, blacklisteddestinations can be set by or modified for any reason by any partyincluding the user (owner/user of mobile device 250), operatingsystem/mobile platform of device 250, the destination itself, networkoperator (of cellular network), Internet service provider, other thirdparties, or according to a list of destinations for applications knownto be uncacheable/not suited for caching. Some entries in theblacklisted destinations may include destinations aggregated based onthe analysis or processing performed by the local proxy (e.g., cacheappropriateness decision engine 246).

For example, applications or mobile clients on the mobile device forwhich responses have been identified as non-suitable for caching can beadded to the blacklist Their corresponding hosts/servers may be added inaddition to or in lieu of an identification of the requestingapplication/client on the mobile device 250. Some or all of such clientsidentified by the proxy system can be added to the blacklist. Forexample, for all application clients or applications that aretemporarily identified as not being suitable for caching, only thosewith certain detected characteristics (based on timing, periodicity,frequency of response content change, content predictability, size,etc.) can be blacklisted.

The blacklisted entries may include a list of requesting applications orrequesting clients on the mobile device (rather than destinations) suchthat, when a request is detected from a given application or givenclient, it may be sent through the network for a response, sinceresponses for blacklisted clients/applications are in most circumstancesnot cached.

A given application profile may also be treated or processed differently(e.g., different behavior of the local proxy 275 and the remote proxy325) depending on the mobile account associated with a mobile devicefrom which the application is being accessed. For example, a higherpaying account, or a premier account may allow more frequent access ofthe wireless network or higher bandwidth allowance thus affecting thecaching policies implemented between the local proxy 275 and proxyserver 325 with an emphasis on better performance compared toconservation of resources. A given application profile may also betreated or processed differently under different wireless networkconditions (e.g., based on congestion or network outage, etc.).

Note that cache appropriateness can be determined, tracked, and managedfor multiple clients or applications on the mobile device 250. Cacheappropriateness can also be determined for different requests or requesttypes initiated by a given client or application on the mobile device250. The caching policy manager 245, along with the timing predictor246A and/or the content predictor 246B which heuristically determines orestimates predictability or potential predictability, can track, manageand store cacheability information for various application or variousrequests for a given application. Cacheability information may alsoinclude conditions (e.g., an application can be cached at certain timesof the day, or certain days of the week, or certain requests of a givenapplication can be cached, or all requests with a given destinationaddress can be cached) under which caching is appropriate which can bedetermined and/or tracked by the cache appropriateness decision engine246 and stored and/or updated when appropriate in the application cachepolicy repository 243 coupled to the cache appropriateness decisionengine 246.

The information in the application cache policy repository 243 regardingcacheability of requests, applications, and/or associated conditions canbe used later on when same requests are detected. In this manner, thedecision engine 246 and/or the timing and content predictors 246A/b neednot track and reanalyze request/response timing and contentcharacteristics to make an assessment regarding cacheability. Inaddition, the cacheability information can in some instances be sharedwith local proxies of other mobile devices by way of directcommunication or via the host server (e.g., proxy server 325 of hostserver 300).

For example, cacheability information detected by the local proxy 275 onvarious mobile devices can be sent to a remote host server or a proxyserver 325 on the host server (e.g., host server 300 or proxy server 325shown in the example of FIG. 3A, host 100 and proxy server 145 in theexample of FIG. 1A-B). The remote host or proxy server can thendistribute the information regarding application-specific,request-specific cacheability information and/or any associatedconditions to various mobile devices or their local proxies in awireless network or across multiple wireless networks (same serviceprovider or multiple wireless service providers) for their use.

In general, the selection criteria for caching can further include, byway of example but not limitation, the state of the mobile deviceindicating whether the mobile device is active or inactive, networkconditions, and/or radio coverage statistics. The cache appropriatenessdecision engine 246 can in any one or any combination of the criteria,and in any order, identifying sources for which caching may be suitable.

Once application servers/content providers having identified or detectedcontent that is potentially suitable for local caching on the mobiledevice 250, the cache policy manager 245 can proceed to cache theassociated content received from the identified sources by storingcontent received from the content source as cache elements in a localcache (e.g., local cache 185 or 285 shown in the examples of FIG. 1B andFIG. 2A, respectively) on the mobile device 250.

The response can be stored in the cache 285 (e.g., also referred as thelocal cache) as a cache entry. In addition to the response to a request,the cached entry can include response metadata having additionalinformation regarding caching of the response. The metadata may begenerated by the metadata generator 203 and can include, for example,timing data such as the access time of the cache entry or creation timeof the cache entry. Metadata can include additional information, such asany information suited for use in determining whether the responsestored as the cached entry is used to satisfy the subsequent response.For example, metadata information can further include, request timinghistory (e.g., including request time, request start time, request endtime), hash of the request and/or response, time intervals or changes intime intervals, etc.

The cache entry is typically stored in the cache 285 in association witha time-to-live (TTL), which for example may be assigned or determined bythe TTL manager 244A of the cache invalidator 244. The time-to-live of acache entry is the amount of time the entry is persisted in the cache285 regardless of whether the response is still valid or relevant for agiven request or client/application on the mobile device 250. Forexample, if the time-to-live of a given cache entry is set to 14 hours,the cache entry is purged, removed, or otherwise indicated as havingexceeded the time-to-live, even if the response body contained in thecache entry is still current and applicable for the associated request.

A default time-to-live can be automatically used for all entries unlessotherwise specified (e.g., by the TTL manager 244A), or each cache entrycan be created with its individual TTL (e.g., determined by the TTLmanager 244A based on various dynamic or static criteria). Note thateach entry can have a single time-to-live associated with both theresponse data and any associated metadata. In some instances, theassociated metadata may have a different time-to-live (e.g., a longertime-to-live) than the response data.

The content source having content for caching can, in addition or inalternate, be identified to a proxy server (e.g., proxy server 145 or325 shown in the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A, respectively) remotefrom and in wireless communication with the mobile device 250 such thatthe proxy server can monitor the content source (e.g., applicationserver/content provider 110) for new or changed data. Similarly, thelocal proxy (e.g., the local proxy 175 or 275 of FIG. 1B and FIG. 2A,respectively) can identify to the proxy server that content receivedfrom a specific application server/content provider is being stored ascached elements in the local cache 285.

Once content has been locally cached, the cache policy manager 245, uponreceiving future polling requests to contact the applicationserver/content host (e.g., 110 or 310), can retrieve the cached elementsfrom the local cache to respond to the polling request made at themobile device 250 such that a radio of the mobile device is notactivated to service the polling request. For example, the cache look-upengine 205 can query the cache 285 to identify the response to be servedto a response. The response can be served from the cache in response toidentifying a matching cache entry and also using any metadata storedwith the response in the cache entry. The cache entries can be queriedby the cache look-up engine using a URI of the request or another typeof identifier (e.g., via the ID or URI filter 205A). The cache-lookupengine 205 can further use the metadata (e.g., extract any timinginformation or other relevant information) stored with the matchingcache entry to determine whether response is still suited for use inbeing served to a current request.

Note that the cache-look-up can be performed by the engine 205 using oneor more of various multiple strategies. In one embodiment, multiplecook-up strategies can be executed sequentially on each entry store dinthe cache 285, until at least one strategy identifies a matching cacheentry. The strategy employed to performing cache look-up can include astrict matching criteria or a matching criteria which allows fornon-matching parameters.

For example, the look-up engine 205 can perform a strict matchingstrategy which searches for an exact match between an identifier (e.g.,a URI for a host or resource) referenced in a present request for whichthe proxy is attempting to identify a cache entry and an identifierstored with the cache entries. In the case where identifiers includeURIs or URLs, the matching algorithm for strict matching will search fora cache entry where all the parameters in the URLs match. For example:

Example 1

-   -   1. Cache contains entry for http://test.com/products/    -   2. Request is being made to URI http://test.com/products/

Strict strategy will find a match, since both URIs are same.

Example 2

-   -   1. Cache contains entry for http://test.com/products/?query=all    -   2. Request is being made to URI        http://test.com/products/?query=sub

Under the strict strategy outlined above, a match will not be foundsince the URIs differ in the query parameter.

In another example strategy, the look-up engine 205 looks for a cacheentry with an identifier that partially matches the identifierreferences in a present request for which the proxy is attempting toidentify a matching cache entry. For example, the look-up engine 205 maylook for a cache entry with an identifier which differs from the requestidentifier by a query parameter value. In utilizing this strategy, thelook-up engine 205 can collect information collected for multipleprevious requests (e.g., a list of arbitrary parameters in anidentifier) to be later checked with the detected arbitrary parameter inthe current request. For example, in the case where cache entries arestored with URI or URL identifiers, the look-up engine searches for acache entry with a URI differing by a query parameter. If found, theengine 205 can examine the cache entry for information collected duringprevious requests (e.g. a list of arbitrary parameters) and checkedwhether the arbitrary parameter detected in or extracted from thecurrent URI/URL belongs to the arbitrary parameters list.

Example 1

-   -   1. Cache contains entry for http://test.com/products/?query=all,        where query is marked as arbitrary.    -   2. Request is being made to URI        http://text.com/products/?query=sub

Match will be found, since query parameter is marked as arbitrary.

Example 2

-   -   1. Cache contains entry for http://test.com/products/?query=all,        where query is marked as arbitrary.    -   2. Request is being made to URI        http://test.com/products/?query=sub&sort=asc

Match will not be found, since current request contains sort parameterwhich is not marked as arbitrary in the cache entry.

Additional strategies for detecting cache hit may be employed. Thesestrategies can be implemented singly or in any combination thereof. Acache-hit can be determined when any one of these strategies determinesa match. A cache miss may be indicated when the look-up engine 205determines that the requested data cannot be served from the cache 285,for any reason. For example, a cache miss may be determined when nocache entries are identified for any or all utilized look-up strategies.

Cache miss may also be determined when a matching cache entry exists butdetermined to be invalid or irrelevant for the current request. Forexample, the look-up engine 205 may further analyze metadata (e.g.,which may include timing data of the cache entry) associated with thematching cache entry to determine whether it is still suitable for usein responding to the present request.

When the look-up engine 205 has identified a cache hit (e.g., an eventindicating that the requested data can be served from the cache), thestored response in the matching cache entry can be served from the cacheto satisfy the request of an application/client.

By servicing requests using cache entries stored in cache 285, networkbandwidth and other resources need not be used to request/receive pollresponses which may have not changed from a response that has alreadybeen received at the mobile device 250. Such servicing and fulfillingapplication (e.g., mobile application) requests locally via cacheentries in the local cache 285 allows for more efficient resource andmobile network traffic utilization and management since the request neednot be sent over the wireless network further consuming bandwidth. Ingeneral, the cache 285 can be persisted between power on/off of themobile device 250, and persisted across application/client refreshes andrestarts.

For example, the local proxy 275, upon receipt of an outgoing requestfrom its mobile device 250 or from an application or other type ofclient on the mobile device 250, can intercept the request and determinewhether a cached response is available in the local cache 285 of themobile device 250. If so, the outgoing request is responded to by thelocal proxy 275 using the cached response on the cache of the mobiledevice. As such, the outgoing request can be filled or satisfied withouta need to send the outgoing request over the wireless network, thusconserving network resources and battery consumption.

In one embodiment, the responding to the requesting application/clienton the device 250 is timed to correspond to a manner in which thecontent server would have responded to the outgoing request over apersistent connection (e.g., over the persistent connection, orlong-held HTTP connection, long poll type connection, that would havebeen established absent interception by the local proxy). The timing ofthe response can be emulated or simulated by the local proxy 275 topreserve application behavior such that end user experience is notaffected, or minimally affected by serving stored content from the localcache 285 rather than fresh content received from the intended contentsource (e.g., content host/application server 110 of FIG. 1A-B). Thetiming can be replicated exactly or estimated within a toleranceparameter, which may go unnoticed by the user or treated similarly bythe application so as to not cause operation issues.

For example, the outgoing request can be a request for a persistentconnection intended for the content server (e.g., applicationserver/content provider of examples of FIG. 1A-1B). In a persistentconnection (e.g., long poll, COMET-style push or any other pushsimulation in asynchronous HTTP requests, long-held HTTP request, HTTPstreaming, or others) with a content source (server), the connection isheld for some time after a request is sent. The connection can typicallybe persisted between the mobile device and the server until content isavailable at the server to be sent to the mobile device. Thus, theretypically can be some delay in time between when a long poll request issent and when a response is received from the content source. If aresponse is not provided by the content source for a certain amount oftime, the connection may also terminate due to network reasons (e.g.,socket closure) if a response is not sent.

Thus, to emulate a response from a content server sent over a persistentconnection (e.g., a long poll style connection), the manner of responseof the content server can be simulated by allowing a time interval toelapse before responding to the outgoing request with the cachedresponse. The length of the time interval can be determined on a requestby request basis or on an application by application (client by clientbasis), for example.

In one embodiment, the time interval is determined based on requestcharacteristics (e.g., timing characteristics) of an application on themobile device from which the outgoing request originates. For example,poll request intervals (e.g., which can be tracked, detected, anddetermined by the long poll detector 238A of the poll interval detector238) can be used to determine the time interval to wait beforeresponding to a request with a local cache entry and managed by theresponse scheduler 249A.

One embodiment of the cache policy manager 245 includes a poll schedulegenerator 247 which can generate a polling schedule for one or moreapplications on the mobile device 250. The polling schedule can specifya polling interval that can be employed by an entity which is physicallydistinct and/or separate from the mobile device 250 in monitoring thecontent source for one or more applications (such that cached responsescan be verified periodically by polling a host server (host server 110or 310) to which the request is directed) on behalf of the mobiledevice. One example of such an external entity which can monitor thecontent at the source for the mobile device 250 is a proxy server (e.g.,proxy server 145 or 325 shown in the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A-C).

The polling schedule (e.g., including a rate/frequency of polling) canbe determined, for example, based on the interval between the pollingrequests directed to the content source from the mobile device. Thepolling schedule or rate of polling may be determined at the mobiledevice 250 (by the local proxy). In one embodiment, the poll intervaldetector 238 of the application behavior detector 236 can monitorpolling requests directed to a content source from the mobile device 250in order to determine an interval between the polling requests made fromany or all application (e.g., mobile application).

For example, the poll interval detector 238 can track requests andresponses for applications or clients on the device 250. In oneembodiment, consecutive requests are tracked prior to detection of anoutgoing request initiated from the application (e.g., mobileapplication) on the mobile device 250 by the same mobile client orapplication (e.g., mobile application). The polling rate can bedetermined using request information collected for the request for whichthe response is cached. In one embodiment, the rate is determined fromaverages of time intervals between previous requests generated by thesame client which generated the request. For example, a first intervalmay be computed between the current request and a previous request, anda second interval can be computed between the two previous requests. Thepolling rate can be set from the average of the first interval and thesecond interval and sent to the proxy server in setting up the cachingstrategy.

Alternate intervals may be computed in generating an average; forexample, multiple previous requests in addition to two previous requestsmay be used, and more than two intervals may be used in computing anaverage. In general, in computing intervals, a given request need nothave resulted in a response to be received from the host server/contentsource in order to use it for interval computation. In other words, thetiming characteristics of a given request may be used in intervalcomputation, as long as the request has been detected, even if therequest failed in sending, or if the response retrieval failed.

One embodiment of the poll schedule generator 247 includes a scheduleupdate engine 247A and/or a time adjustment engine 247B. The scheduleupdate engine 247A can determine a need to update a rate or pollinginterval with which a given application server/content host from apreviously set value, based on a detected interval change in the actualrequests generated from a client or application (e.g., mobileapplication) on the mobile device 250.

For example, a request for which a monitoring rate was determined maynow be sent from the application (e.g., mobile application) or client ata different request interval. The scheduled update engine 247A candetermine the updated polling interval of the actual requests andgenerate a new rate, different from the previously set rate to poll thehost at on behalf of the mobile device 250. The updated polling rate canbe communicated to the remote proxy (proxy server 325) over the cellularnetwork for the remote proxy to monitor the given host. In someinstances, the updated polling rate may be determined at the remoteproxy or remote entity which monitors the host.

In one embodiment, the time adjustment engine 247B can further optimizethe poll schedule generated to monitor the application server/contentsource (110 or 310). For example, the time adjustment engine 247B canoptionally specify a time to start polling to the proxy server. Forexample, in addition to setting the polling interval at which the proxyserver is to monitor the application, server/content host can alsospecify the time at which an actual request was generated at the mobileclient/application.

However, in some cases, due to inherent transmission delay or addednetwork delays or other types of latencies, the remote proxy serverreceives the poll setup from the local proxy with some delay (e.g., afew minutes, or a few seconds). This has the effect of detectingresponse change at the source after a request is generated by the mobileclient/application causing the invalidate of the cached response tooccur after it has once again been served to the application after theresponse is no longer current or valid.

To resolve this non-optimal result of serving the out-dated content onceagain before invalidating it, the time adjustment engine 247B canspecify the time (t0) at which polling should begin in addition to therate, where the specified initial time t0 can be specified to the proxyserver 325 as a time that is less than the actual time when the requestwas generated by the mobile app/client. This way, the server polls theresource slightly before the generation of an actual request by themobile client such that any content change can be detected prior to anactual application request. This prevents invalid or irrelevantout-dated content/response from being served once again before freshcontent is served.

In one embodiment, an outgoing request from a mobile device 250 isdetected to be for a persistent connection (e.g., a long poll, COMETstyle push, and long-held (HTTP) request) based on timingcharacteristics of prior requests from the same application or client onthe mobile device 250. For example, requests and/or correspondingresponses can be tracked by the request/response tracking engine 238B ofthe long poll detector 238A of the poll interval detector 238.

The timing characteristics of the consecutive requests can be determinedto set up a polling schedule for the application or client. The pollingschedule can be used to monitor the content source (contentsource/application server) for content changes such that cached contentstored on the local cache in the mobile device 250 can be appropriatelymanaged (e.g., updated or discarded). In one embodiment, the timingcharacteristics can include, for example, a response delay time (‘D’)and/or an idle time (‘IT’).

In one embodiment, the response/request tracking engine 238B can trackrequests and responses to determine, compute, and/or estimate, thetiming diagrams for applicant or client requests.

For example, the response/request tracking engine 238B detects a firstrequest (Request 0) initiated by a client on the mobile device and asecond request (Request 1) initiated by the client on the mobile deviceafter a response is received at the mobile device responsive to thefirst request. The second request is one that is subsequent to the firstrequest.

In one embodiment, the response/request tracking engine 238B can trackrequests and responses to determine, compute, and/or estimate the timingdiagrams for applicant or client requests. The response/request trackingengine 238B can detect a first request initiated by a client on themobile device and a second request initiated by the client on the mobiledevice after a response is received at the mobile device responsive tothe first request. The second request is one that is subsequent to thefirst request.

The response/request tracking engine 238B further determines relativetimings between the first, second requests, and the response received inresponse to the first request. In general, the relative timings can beused by the long poll detector 238A to determine whether requestsgenerated by the application are long poll requests.

Note that in general, the first and second requests that are used by theresponse/request tracking engine 238B in computing the relative timingsare selected for use after a long poll hunting period has settled or inthe event when long poll hunting does not occur. Timing characteristicsthat are typical of a long poll hunting period is can be, for example,detected by the long poll hunting detector 238C. In other words, therequests tracked by the response/request tracking engine 238B and usedfor determining whether a given request is a long poll occurs after thelong poll has settled.

In one embodiment, the long poll hunting detector 238C can identify ordetect hunting mode, by identifying increasing request intervals (e.g.,increasing delays). The long poll hunting detector 238A can also detecthunting mode by detecting increasing request intervals, followed by arequest with no response (e.g., connection timed out), or by detectingincreasing request intervals followed by a decrease in the interval. Inaddition, the long poll hunting detector 238C can apply a filter valueor a threshold value to request-response time delay value (e.g., anabsolute value) above which the detected delay can be considered to be along poll request-response delay. The filter value can be any suitablevalue characteristic of long polls and/or network conditions (e.g., 2 s,5 s, 10 s, 15 s, 20 s., etc.) and can be used as a filter or thresholdvalue.

The response delay time (‘D’) refers to the start time to receive aresponse after a request has been sent and the idle refers to time tosend a subsequent request after the response has been received. In oneembodiment, the outgoing request is detected to be for a persistentconnection based on a comparison (e.g., performed by the tracking engine238B) of the response delay time relative (‘D’) or average of (‘D’)(e.g., any average over any period of time) to the idle time (‘IT’), forexample, by the long poll detector 238A. The number of averages used canbe fixed, dynamically adjusted, or changed over a longer period of time.For example, the requests initiated by the client are determined to belong poll requests if the response delay time interval is greater thanthe idle time interval (D>IT or D>>IT). In one embodiment, the trackingengine 238B of the long poll detector computes, determines, or estimatesthe response delay time interval as the amount of time elapsed betweentime of the first request and initial detection or full receipt of theresponse.

In one embodiment, a request is detected to be for a persistentconnection when the idle time (‘IT’) is short since persistentconnections, established in response to long poll requests or long pollHTTP requests for example, can also be characterized in detectingimmediate or near-immediate issuance of a subsequent request afterreceipt of a response to a previous request (e.g., IT ˜0). As such, theidle time (‘IT’) can also be used to detect such immediate ornear-immediate re-request to identify long poll requests. The absoluteor relative timings determined by the tracking engine 238B are used todetermine whether the second request is immediately or near-immediatelyre-requested after the response to the first request is received. Forexample, a request may be categorized as a long poll request ifD+RT+IT˜D+RT since IT is small for this to hold true. IT may bedetermined to be small if it is less than a threshold value. Note thatthe threshold value could be fixed or calculated over a limited timeperiod (a session, a day, a month, etc.), or calculated over a longertime period (e.g., several months or the life of the analysis). Forexample, for every request, the average IT can be determined, and thethreshold can be determined using this average IT (e.g., the average ITless a certain percentage may be used as the threshold). This can allowthe threshold to automatically adapt over time to network conditions andchanges in server capability, resource availability or server response.A fixed threshold can take upon any value including by way of examplebut not limitation (e.g., 1 s. 2 s. 3 s. . . . etc.).

In one embodiment, the long poll detector 238A can compare the relativetimings (e.g., determined by the tracker engine 238B) torequest-response timing characteristics for other applications todetermine whether the requests of the application are long pollrequests. For example, the requests initiated by a client or applicationcan be determined to be long poll requests if the response delayinterval time (‘D’) or the average response delay interval time (e.g.,averaged over x number of requests or any number of delay interval timesaveraged over x amount of time) is greater than a threshold value.

The threshold value can be determined using response delay intervaltimes for requests generated by other clients, for example by therequest/response tracking engine 238B and/or by the application profilegenerator 239 (e.g., the response delay interval tracker 239A). Theother clients may reside on the same mobile device and the thresholdvalue is determined locally by components on the mobile device. Thethreshold value can be determined for all requests over all resourcesserver over all networks, for example. The threshold value can be set toa specific constant value (e.g., 30 seconds, for example) to be used forall requests, or any request which does not have an applicable thresholdvalue (e.g., long poll is detected if D>30 seconds).

In some instances, the other clients reside on different mobile devicesand the threshold can be determined by a proxy server (e.g., proxyserver 325 of the host 300 shown in the example of FIG. 3A-B) which isexternal to the mobile device and able to communicate over a wirelessnetwork with the multiple different mobile devices, as will be furtherdescribed with reference to FIG. 3B.

In one embodiment, the cache policy manager 245 sends the pollingschedule to the proxy server (e.g., proxy server 145 or 325 shown in theexamples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A) and can be used by the proxy server inmonitoring the content source, for example, for changed or new content(updated response different from the cached response associated with arequest or application). A polling schedule sent to the proxy caninclude multiple timing parameters including but not limited to interval(time from request 1 to request 2) or a time out interval (time to waitfor response, used in long polls, for example). The timing intervals mayall or in part be sent to the proxy server.

For example, in the case when the local proxy 275 detects a long poll,the various timing intervals in a request/response timing sequence(e.g., ‘D’, ‘RT’, and/or ‘IT’) can be sent to the proxy server 325 foruse in polling the content source (e.g., application server/content host110). The local proxy 275 can also identify to the proxy server 325 thata given application or request to be monitored is a long poll request(e.g., instructing the proxy server to set a ‘long poll flag’, forexample). In addition, the proxy server uses the various timingintervals to determine when to send keep-alive indications on behalf ofmobile devices.

The local cache invalidator 244 of the caching policy manager 245 caninvalidate cache elements in the local cache (e.g., cache 185 or 285)when new or changed data (e.g., updated response) is detected from theapplication server/content source for a given request. The cachedresponse can be determined to be invalid for the outgoing request basedon a notification received from the proxy server (e.g., proxy 325 or thehost server 300). The source which provides responses to requests of themobile client can be monitored to determine relevancy of the cachedresponse stored in the cache of the mobile device 250 for the request.For example, the cache invalidator 244 can further remove/delete thecached response from the cache of the mobile device when the cachedresponse is no longer valid for a given request or a given application.

In one embodiment, the cached response is removed from the cache afterit is provided once again to an application which generated the outgoingrequest after determining that the cached response is no longer valid.The cached response can be provided again without waiting for the timeinterval or provided again after waiting for a time interval (e.g., thetime interval determined to be specific to emulate the response delay ina long poll). In one embodiment, the time interval is the response delay‘D’ or an average value of the response delay ‘D’ over two or morevalues.

The new or changed data can be, for example, detected by the proxyserver (e.g., proxy server 145 or 325 shown in the examples of FIG. 1Band FIG. 3A). When a cache entry for a given request/poll has beeninvalidated, the use of the radio on the mobile device 250 can beenabled (e.g., by the local proxy 275 or the cache policy manager 245)to satisfy the subsequent polling requests, as further described withreference to the interaction diagram of FIG. 4B.

One embodiment of the cache policy manager 245 includes a cache orconnect selection engine 249 which can decide whether to use a locallycached entry to satisfy a poll/content request generated at the mobiledevice 250 by an application or widget. For example, the local proxy 275or the cache policy manger 245 can intercept a polling request, made byan application (e.g., mobile application) on the mobile device, tocontact the application server/content provider. The selection engine249 can determine whether the content received for the interceptedrequest has been locally stored as cache elements for deciding whetherthe radio of the mobile device needs to be activated to satisfy therequest made by the application (e.g., mobile application) and alsodetermine whether the cached response is still valid for the outgoingrequest prior to responding to the outgoing request using the cachedresponse.

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275, in response to determining thatrelevant cached content exists and is still valid, can retrieve thecached elements from the local cache to provide a response to theapplication (e.g., mobile application) which made the polling requestsuch that a radio of the mobile device is not activated to provide theresponse to the application (e.g., mobile application). In general, thelocal proxy 275 continues to provide the cached response each time theoutgoing request is received until the updated response different fromthe cached response is detected.

When it is determined that the cached response is no longer valid, a newrequest for a given request is transmitted over the wireless network foran updated response. The request can be transmitted to the applicationserver/content provider (e.g., server/host 110) or the proxy server onthe host server (e.g., proxy 325 on the host 300) for a new and updatedresponse. In one embodiment the cached response can be provided again asa response to the outgoing request if a new response is not receivedwithin the time interval, prior to removal of the cached response fromthe cache on the mobile device.

FIG. 2C depicts a block diagram illustrating a further example ofcomponents in a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to another embodiment of thesubject matter described herein, which is further capable of detectingcache defeat and perform caching of content addressed by identifiersintended to defeat cache and which is further capable of performingmobile traffic categorization and policy implementation based onapplication behavior and/or user activity. FIG. 2C depicts a blockdiagram illustrating another example of components in the applicationbehavior detector 236 and the caching policy manager 245 in the localproxy 275 on the client-side of the distributed proxy system shown inthe example of FIG. 2A. The illustrated application behavior detector236 and the caching policy manager 245 can, for example, enable thelocal proxy 275 to detect cache defeat and perform caching of contentaddressed by identifiers intended to defeat cache.

In one embodiment, the caching policy manager 245 includes a cachedefeat resolution engine 221, an identifier formalizer 211, a cacheappropriateness decision engine 246, a poll schedule generator 247, anapplication protocol module 248, a cache or connect selection engine 249having a cache query module 229, and/or a local cache invalidator 244.The cache defeat resolution engine 221 can further include a patternextraction module 222 and/or a cache defeat parameter detector 223. Thecache defeat parameter detector 223 can further include a randomparameter detector 224 and/or a time/date parameter detector 226. Oneembodiment further includes an application cache policy repository 243coupled to the decision engine 246.

In one embodiment, the application behavior detector 236 includes apattern detector 237, a poll interval detector 238, an applicationprofile generator 239, and/or a priority engine 241. The patterndetector 237 can further include a cache defeat parameter detector 223having also, for example, a random parameter detector 233 and/or atime/date parameter detector 234. One embodiment further includes anapplication profile repository 242 coupled to the application profilegenerator 239. The application profile generator 239, and the priorityengine 241 have been described in association with the description ofthe application behavior detector 236 in the example of FIG. 2A.

The cache defeat resolution engine 221 can detect, identify, track,manage, and/or monitor content or content sources (e.g., servers orhosts) which employ identifiers and/or are addressed by identifiers(e.g., resource identifiers such as URLs and/or URIs) with one or moremechanisms that defeat cache or are intended to defeat cache. The cachedefeat resolution engine 221 can, for example, detect from a given datarequest generated by an application or client that the identifierdefeats or potentially defeats cache, where the data request otherwiseaddresses content or responses from a host or server (e.g., applicationserver/content host 110 or 310) that is cacheable.

In one embodiment, the cache defeat resolution engine 221 detects oridentifies cache defeat mechanisms used by content sources (e.g.,application server/content host 110 or 310) using the identifier of adata request detected at the mobile device 250. The cache defeatresolution engine 221 can detect or identify a parameter in theidentifier which can indicate that cache defeat mechanism is used. Forexample, a format, syntax, or pattern of the parameter can be used toidentify cache defeat (e.g., a pattern, format, or syntax as determinedor extracted by the pattern extraction module 222).

The pattern extraction module 222 can parse an identifier into multipleparameters or components and perform a matching algorithm on eachparameter to identify any of which match one or more predeterminedformats (e.g., a date and/or time format, as illustrated in parameters702 shown in FIG. 7). For example, the results of the matching or theparsed out parameters from an identifier can be used (e.g., by the cachedefeat parameter detector 223) to identify cache defeating parameterswhich can include one or more changing parameters.

The cache defeat parameter detector 223, in one embodiment can detectrandom parameters (e.g., by the random parameter detector 224) and/ortime and/or date parameters which are typically used for cache defeat.The cache defeat parameter detector 223 can detect random parameters(e.g., as illustrated in parameters 752 shown in FIG. 7) and/ortime/dates using commonly employed formats for these parameters andperforming pattern matching algorithms and tests.

In addition to detecting patterns, formats, and/or syntaxes, the cachedefeat parameter detector 223 further determines or confirms whether agiven parameter is defeating cache and whether the addressed content canbe cached by the distributed caching system. The cache defeat parameterdetector 223 can detect this by analyzing responses received for theidentifiers utilized by a given data request. In general, a changingparameter in the identifier is identified to indicate cache defeat whenresponses corresponding to multiple data requests are the same even whenthe multiple data requests uses identifiers with the changing parameterbeing different for each of the multiple data requests.

For example, at least two same responses may be required to identify thechanging parameter as indicating cache defeat. In some instances, atleast three same responses may be required. The requirement for thenumber of same responses needed to determine that a given parameter witha varying value between requests is cache defeating may be applicationspecific, context dependent, and/or user dependent/user specified, or acombination of the above. Such a requirement may also be static ordynamically adjusted by the distributed cache system to meet certainperformance thresholds and/or either explicit/implicit feedbackregarding user experience (e.g., whether the user or application isreceiving relevant/fresh content responsive to requests). More of thesame responses may be required to confirm cache defeat, or for thesystem to treat a given parameter as intended for cache defeat if anapplication begins to malfunction due to response caching and/or if theuser expresses dissatisfaction (explicit user feedback) or the systemdetects user frustration (implicit user cues).

The cache appropriateness decision engine 246 can detect, assess, ordetermine whether content from a content source (e.g., applicationserver/content provider 110 in the example of FIG. 1B) with which amobile device 250 interacts, has content that may be suitable forcaching. In some instances, content from a given applicationserver/content provider (e.g., the server/provider 110 of FIG. 1B) isdetermined to be suitable for caching based on a set of criteria (forexample, criteria specifying time criticality of the content that isbeing requested from the content source). In one embodiment, the localproxy (e.g., the local proxy 175 or 275 of FIG. 1B and FIG. 2A) appliesa selection criteria to store the content from the host server which isrequested by an application as cached elements in a local cache on themobile device to satisfy subsequent requests made by the application.

The selection criteria can also include, by way of example, but notlimitation, state of the mobile device indicating whether the mobiledevice is active or inactive, network conditions, and/or radio coveragestatistics. The cache appropriateness decision engine 246 can any one orany combination of the criteria, and in any order, in identifyingsources for which caching may be suitable.

Once application servers/content providers having identified or detectedcontent that is potentially suitable for local caching on the mobiledevice 250, the cache policy manager 245 can proceed to cache theassociated content received from the identified sources by storingcontent received from the content source as cache elements in a localcache (e.g., local cache 185 or 285 shown in the examples of FIG. 1B andFIG. 2A, respectively) on the mobile device 250. The content source canalso be identified to a proxy server (e.g., proxy server 145 or 325shown in the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A, respectively) remote fromand in wireless communication with the mobile device 250 such that theproxy server can monitor the content source (e.g., applicationserver/content provider 110) for new or changed data. Similarly, thelocal proxy (e.g., the local proxy 175 or 275 of FIG. 1B and FIG. 2A,respectively) can identify to the proxy server that content receivedfrom a specific application server/content provider is being stored ascached elements in the local cache.

In one embodiment, cache elements are stored in the local cache 285 asbeing associated with a normalized version of an identifier for anidentifier employing one or more parameters intended to defeat cache.The identifier can be normalized by the identifier normalizer module 211and the normalization process can include, by way of example, one ormore of: converting the URI scheme and host to lower-case, capitalizingletters in percent-encoded escape sequences, removing a default port,and removing duplicate slashes.

In another embodiment, the identifier is normalized by removing theparameter for cache defeat and/or replacing the parameter with a staticvalue which can be used to address or be associated with the cachedresponse received responsive to a request utilizing the identifier bythe normalizer 211 or the cache defeat parameter handler 214. Forexample, the cached elements stored in the local cache 285 (shown inFIG. 2A) can be identified using the normalized version of theidentifier or a hash value of the normalized version of the identifier.The hash value of an identifier or of the normalized identifier may begenerated by the hash engine 213.

Once content has been locally cached, the cache policy manager 245 can,upon receiving future polling requests to contact the content server,retrieve the cached elements from the local cache to respond to thepolling request made at the mobile device 250 such that a radio of themobile device is not activated to service the polling request. Suchservicing and fulfilling application (e.g., mobile application) requestslocally via local cache entries allow for more efficient resource andmobile network traffic utilization and management since networkbandwidth and other resources need not be used to request/receive pollresponses which may have not changed from a response that has alreadybeen received at the mobile device 250.

One embodiment of the cache policy manager 245 includes a poll schedulegenerator 247 which can generate a polling schedule for one or moreapplications on the mobile device 250. The polling schedule can specifya polling interval that can be employed by the proxy server (e.g., proxyserver 145 or 325 shown in the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A) inmonitoring the content source for one or more applications. The pollingschedule can be determined, for example, based on the interval betweenthe polling requests directed to the content source from the mobiledevice. In one embodiment, the poll interval detector 238 of theapplication behavior detector can monitor polling requests directed to acontent source from the mobile device 250 in order to determine aninterval between the polling requests made from any or all application(e.g., mobile application).

In one embodiment, the cache policy manager 245 sends the pollingschedule is sent to the proxy server (e.g., proxy server 145 or 325shown in the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A) and can be used by theproxy server in monitoring the content source, for example, for changedor new content. The local cache invalidator 244 of the caching policymanager 245 can invalidate cache elements in the local cache (e.g.,cache 185 or 285) when new or changed data is detected from theapplication server/content source for a given request. The new orchanged data can be, for example, detected by the proxy server. When acache entry for a given request/poll has been invalidated and/or removed(e.g., deleted from cache) after invalidation, the use of the radio onthe mobile device 250 can be enabled (e.g., by the local proxy or thecache policy manager 245) to satisfy the subsequent polling requests, asfurther described with reference to the interaction diagram of FIG. 4B.

In another embodiment, the proxy server (e.g., proxy server 145 or 325shown in the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A) uses a modified version ofa resource identifier used in a data request to monitor a given contentsource (the application server/content host 110 of FIG. 1A and FIG. 1Bto which the data request is addressed) for new or changed data. Forexample, in the instance where the content source or identifier isdetected to employ cache defeat mechanisms, a modified (e.g.,normalized) identifier can be used instead to poll the content source.The modified or normalized version of the identifier can be communicatedto the proxy server by the caching policy manager 245, or morespecifically the cache defeat parameter handler 214 of the identifiernormalizer 211.

The modified identifier used by the proxy server to poll the contentsource on behalf of the mobile device/application (e.g., mobileapplication) may or may not be the same as the normalized identifier.For example, the normalized identifier may be the original identifierwith the changing cache defeating parameter removed whereas the modifiedidentifier uses a substitute parameter in place of the parameter that isused to defeat cache (e.g., the changing parameter replaced with astatic value or other predetermined value known to the local proxyand/or proxy server). The modified parameter can be determined by thelocal proxy 275 and communicated to the proxy server. The modifiedparameter may also be generated by the proxy server (e.g., by theidentifier modifier module 353 shown in the example of FIG. 3C).

One embodiment of the cache policy manager 245 includes a cache orconnect selection engine 249 which can decide whether to use a locallycached entry to satisfy a poll/content request generated at the mobiledevice 250 by an application or widget. For example, the local proxy 275or the cache policy manger 245 can intercept a polling request made byan application (e.g., mobile application) on the mobile device, tocontact the application server/content provider. The selection engine249 can determine whether the content received for the interceptedrequest has been locally stored as cache elements for deciding whetherthe a radio of the mobile device needs to be activated to satisfy therequest made by the application (e.g., mobile application). In oneembodiment, the local proxy 275, in response to determining thatrelevant cached content exists and is still valid, can retrieve thecached elements from the local cache to provide a response to theapplication (e.g., mobile application) which made the polling requestsuch that a radio of the mobile device is not activated to provide theresponse to the application (e.g., mobile application).

In one embodiment, the cached elements stored in the local cache 285(shown in FIG. 2A) can be identified using a normalized version of theidentifier or a hash value of the normalized version of the identifier,for example, using the cache query module 229. Cached elements can bestored with normalized identifiers which have cache defeating parametersremoved or otherwise replaced such that the relevant cached elements canbe identified and retrieved in the future to satisfy other requestsemploying the same type of cache defeat. For example, when an identifierutilized in a subsequent request is determined to be utilizing the samecache defeating parameter, the normalized version of this identifier canbe generated and used to identify a cached response stored in the mobiledevice cache to satisfy the data request. The hash value of anidentifier or of the normalized identifier may be generated by the hashengine 213 of the identifier normalizer 211.

FIG. 2D depicts a block diagram illustrating examples of additionalcomponents in the local cache of a distributed proxy and cache systemfor providing APIs and API extensions to third party applications foroptimizing and minimizing application traffic according to anotherembodiment of the subject matter described herein. FIG. 2D depicts ablock diagram illustrating examples of additional components in thelocal proxy 275 shown in the example of FIG. 2A which is further capableof performing mobile traffic categorization and policy implementationbased on application behavior and/or user activity.

In this embodiment of the local proxy 275, the user activity module 215further includes one or more of, a user activity tracker 215A, a useractivity prediction engine 215B, and/or a user expectation manager 215C.The application behavior detect 236 can further include a prioritizationengine 241A, a time criticality detection engine 241B, an applicationstate categorizer 241C, and/or an application traffic categorizer 241D.The local proxy 275 can further include a backlight detector 219 and/ora network configuration selection engine 251. The network configurationselection engine 251 can further include, one or more of, a wirelessgeneration standard selector 251A, a data rate specifier 251B, an accesschannel selection engine 251C, and/or an access point selector.

In one embodiment, the application behavior detector 236 is able todetect, determined, identify, or infer, the activity state of anapplication on the mobile device 250 to which traffic has originatedfrom or is directed to, for example, via the application statecategorizer 241C and/or the traffic categorizer 241D. The activity statecan be determined by whether the application is in a foreground orbackground state on the mobile device (via the application statecategorizer 241C) since the traffic for a foreground application vs. abackground application may be handled differently.

In one embodiment, the activity state can be determined, detected,identified, or inferred with a level of certainty of heuristics, basedon the backlight status of the mobile device 250 (e.g., by the backlightdetector 219) or other software agents or hardware sensors on the mobiledevice, including but not limited to, resistive sensors, capacitivesensors, ambient light sensors, motion sensors, touch sensors, etc. Ingeneral, if the backlight is on, the traffic can be treated as being ordetermined to be generated from an application that is active or in theforeground, or the traffic is interactive. In addition, if the backlightis on, the traffic can be treated as being or determined to be trafficfrom user interaction or user activity, or traffic containing data thatthe user is expecting within some time frame.

In one embodiment, the activity state is determined based on whether thetraffic is interactive traffic or maintenance traffic. Interactivetraffic can include transactions from responses and requests generateddirectly from user activity/interaction with an application and caninclude content or data that a user is waiting or expecting to receive.Maintenance traffic may be used to support the functionality of anapplication which is not directly detected by a user. Maintenancetraffic can also include actions or transactions that may take place inresponse to a user action, but the user is not actively waiting for orexpecting a response.

For example, a mail or message delete action at a mobile device 250generates a request to delete the corresponding mail or message at theserver, but the user typically is not waiting for a response. Thus, sucha request may be categorized as maintenance traffic, or traffic having alower priority (e.g., by the prioritization engine 241A) and/or is nottime-critical (e.g., by the time criticality detection engine 214B).

Contrastingly, a mail ‘read’ or message ‘read’ request initiated by auser a the mobile device 250, can be categorized as ‘interactivetraffic’ since the user generally is waiting to access content or datawhen they request to read a message or mail. Similarly, such a requestcan be categorized as having higher priority (e.g., by theprioritization engine 241A) and/or as being time critical/time sensitive(e.g., by the time criticality detection engine 241B).

The time criticality detection engine 241B can generally determine,identify, infer the time sensitivity of data contained in traffic sentfrom the mobile device 250 or to the mobile device from a host server(e.g., host 300) or application server (e.g., app server/content source110). For example, time sensitive data can include, status updates,stock information updates, IM presence information, email messages orother messages, actions generated from mobile gaming applications,webpage requests, location updates, etc. Data that is not time sensitiveor time critical, by nature of the content or request, can includerequests to delete messages, mark-as-read or edited actions,application-specific actions such as a add-friend or delete-friendrequest, certain types of messages, or other information which does notfrequently changing by nature, etc. In some instances when the data isnot time critical, the timing with which to allow the traffic to passthrough is set based on when additional data needs to be sent from themobile device 250. For example, traffic shaping engine 255 can align thetraffic with one or more subsequent transactions to be sent together ina single power-on event of the mobile device radio (e.g, using thealignment module 256 and/or the batching module 257). The alignmentmodule 256 can also align polling requests occurring close in timedirected to the same host server, since these request are likely to beresponded to with the same data.

In the alternate or in combination, the activity state can be determinedfrom assessing, determining, evaluating, inferring, identifying useractivity at the mobile device 250 (e.g., via the user activity module215). For example, user activity can be directly detected and trackedusing the user activity tracker 215A. The traffic resulting therefromcan then be categorized appropriately for subsequent processing todetermine the policy for handling. Furthermore, user activity can bepredicted or anticipated by the user activity prediction engine 215B. Bypredicting user activity or anticipating user activity, the traffic thusoccurring after the prediction can be treated as resulting from useractivity and categorized appropriately to determine the transmissionpolicy.

In addition, the user activity module 215 can also manage userexpectations (e.g., via the user expectation manager 215C and/or inconjunction with the activity tracker 215 and/or the prediction engine215B) to ensure that traffic is categorized appropriately such that userexpectations are generally met. For example, a user-initiated actionshould be analyzed (e.g., by the expectation manager 215) to determineor infer whether the user would be waiting for a response. If so, suchtraffic should be handled under a policy such that the user does notexperience an unpleasant delay in receiving such a response or action.

In one embodiment, an advanced generation wireless standard network isselected for use in sending traffic between a mobile device and a hostserver in the wireless network based on the activity state of theapplication on the mobile device for which traffic is originated from ordirected to. An advanced technology standards such as the 3G, 3.5G, 3G+,4G, or LTE network can be selected for handling traffic generated as aresult of user interaction, user activity, or traffic containing datathat the user is expecting or waiting for. Advanced generation wirelessstandard network can also be selected for to transmit data contained intraffic directed to the mobile device which responds to foregroundactivities.

In categorizing traffic and defining a transmission policy for mobiletraffic, a network configuration can be selected for use (e.g., by thenetwork configuration selection engine 251) on the mobile device 250 insending traffic between the mobile device and a proxy server (325)and/or an application server (e.g., app server/host 110). The networkconfiguration that is selected can be determined based on informationgathered by the application behavior module 236 regarding applicationactivity state (e.g., background or foreground traffic), applicationtraffic category (e.g., interactive or maintenance traffic), anypriorities of the data/content, time sensitivity/criticality.

The network configuration selection engine 2510 can select or specifyone or more of, a generation standard (e.g., via wireless generationstandard selector 251A), a data rate (e.g., via data rate specifier251B), an access channel (e.g., access channel selection engine 251C),and/or an access point (e.g., via the access point selector 251D), inany combination.

For example, a more advanced generation (e.g, 3G, LTE, or 4G or later)can be selected or specified for traffic when the activity state is ininteraction with a user or in a foreground on the mobile device.Contrastingly, an older generation standard (e.g., 2G, 2.5G, or 3G orolder) can be specified for traffic when one or more of the following isdetected, the application is not interacting with the user, theapplication is running in the background on the mobile device, or thedata contained in the traffic is not time critical, or is otherwisedetermined to have lower priority.

Similarly, a network configuration with a slower data rate can bespecified for traffic when one or more of the following is detected, theapplication is not interacting with the user, the application is runningin the background on the mobile device, or the data contained in thetraffic is not time critical. The access channel (e.g., Forward accesschannel or dedicated channel) can be specified.

FIG. 2E depicts a block diagram illustrating examples of additionalcomponents in the traffic shaping engine and the application behaviordetector of a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIs andAPI extensions to third party applications for optimizing and minimizingapplication traffic according to another embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein, which are further capable of facilitatingalignment of incoming data transfer to a mobile or broadband device, orits user, to optimize the number of connections that need to beestablished for receiving data over the wireless network or broadbandnetwork. FIG. 2E depicts a block diagram illustrating examples ofadditional components in the traffic shaping engine 255 and theapplication behavior detector 236 shown in the example of FIG. 2A whichare further capable of facilitating alignment of incoming data transferto a mobile or broadband device, or its user, to optimize the number ofconnections that need to be established for receiving data over thewireless network or broadband network.

In one embodiment of the local proxy 275, the traffic shaping engine255, in addition to the alignment module 256, batching module 257,further includes a poll interval adjuster 258. The poll intervaladjuster 258 can include a factor or denominator detection engine 258A,a critical application detector 258B, a critical interval identifier258C, and/or a polling interval setting engine 258D. Further in oneembodiment, the application behavior detector 236 of the local proxy 275further includes a poll interval detector 238.

In facilitating alignment of data bursts across various services orhosts to the mobile device 250, the local proxy 275 can initiallydetermine, detect, identify, compute, infer, extract the an original ordefault polling interval for applications or mobile clients on themobile device 250 (e.g., by the poll interval detector 238). Theoriginal or default polling interval is typically that characteristic ofthe mobile application itself and/or its host (e.g., its correspondingapplication server/content host 110 shown in FIG. 1A-1B). The pollinterval detector 238 can detect the original or default poll intervalfor any number or all of the mobile applications which regularly polltheir application servers or hosts for use by the proxy 275 ingenerating or adjusting the polling intervals suitable for use for thedevice 250 based on the applications installed thereon and theirrespective poll timing characteristics.

For example, the poll intervals (original or default) of the mobileclients or applications on device 250 can be used by the poll intervaladjuster 258. In general, an adjusted polling interval for a firstservice is generated based on a polling interval of a second service,which may be serviced by a distinct host from the first service (e.g.,Twitter=service 1; ESPN.com=service 2). The adjusted polling intervalcomputed for the first service and/or the second service, can be used inaligning at least some traffic received from the distinct hosts due toaccess on a mobile device of first and second services.

For example, in one embodiment, the adjusted polling interval of thefirst service can be a factor or denominator that the original pollinginterval of the first service has in common with the original pollinginterval of the second service (e.g., as determined by the factor ordenominator detection engine 258A), and can further be determined basedon an original polling interval of the first service. Note that theadjusted polling interval of the first service need not be differentfrom the original polling interval of the first service when theoriginal polling interval of the first service and the polling intervalof the second service are factors or denominators of each other.

In one embodiment, the detection engine 258A is able to furtherdetermine multiples of a factor or denominator of the polling intervalof the second service and the adjusted polling interval of the firstservice is a multiple of a factor or a multiple of a denominator of thepolling interval of the second service. In addition, the engine 258A candetermine multiples of a common factor or a common denominator of amajority number of the default polling intervals for multipleapplications on the device 250.

In addition, the adjusted polling interval of the first service can befurther determined, adjusted, or reconfigured (e.g., by the pollinginterval setting engine 258D), based on time criticality of traffic fromthe first service relative to time criticality of traffic from thesecond service, or additional services on the mobile device 250. Forexample, the critical application detector 258B can identify, detect, orreceive input identifying or specifying one or more applications on thedevice 250 as being more critical than others (e.g., higher priority,time sensitive content/traffic, user preferred application, OS sponsoredapplication, operator-sponsored content, etc.) and further adjust thepolling intervals of the first and/or second services if need.

For example, the critical application detector 258B can identify acritical application as being the most time critical of all applicationson the mobile device, or a set of applications for which data burstalignment is being applied or attempted on. For the critical application(s), the polling interval of the critical application is identified as aminimum critical interval (e.g., by the critical interval identifier258C), which is not to be exceeded in assigning an updated pollinginterval for the critical application such that the priority in dataneeds (e.g., whether it is a user-need, device-need, orapplication-need) for prompt and timely delivery of data from theapplication server or content host.

High priority information/data or application can include, for example,financial data, sporting data or other data constantly changing innature, any data whose previous values have little to no relevancy, anydata (e.g., subscriptions or feeds) that a user wishes to be immediatelynotified of in real time or near real time, any specific featureindicated as a real time or near real time feature by the applicationserver/content host (e.g., real-time status updates, or real-timenotifications, high priority email or other messages, IM messages, etc.)or applications servicing any type of high priority/time sensitivecontent.

Once the polling intervals of one or more applications on the mobiledevice 250 have been set, the local proxy 275 communicates a pollingschedule including the adjusted polling interval (s) to a proxy server(eg., remote proxy 325 of FIG. 3A-3E) for use in aligning, in time, atleast some traffic received from the distinct hosts due to access on themobile device of first and second services, and any additional services.

In one embodiment, the poll interval setting engine 258D also selectinga common starting point in time for an initial poll of the content hostsservicing the multiple applications. The poll interval setting engine258D can set the start time to be anchored to the same absolute point intime across the multiple applications on the device 250. In general, theapplication servers/content hosts are typically in UTC and use NTP tostay at the same time. For example, the interval setting engine 258D canpick any minute mark, second mark, hour mark, or other time indicators,and communicate this to the remote proxy server (e.g., proxy 325) aspart of the adjusted polling parameter. The mark can be selectedrandomly used by all applications as the common ‘initial time t0.”

Note that while the above description uses an example of twoapplications, the same process can be performed for any number ofapplications or all applications/clients on the mobile device 250. Insome instances, some or all of the functions performed by one or more ofthe components poll interval adjustor 258 can be performed remotely, forexample, at a remote proxy server (e.g., proxy 325) using the pollintervals detected locally at the mobile device 250 (e.g., by the pollinterval detector 238). Note that the remote proxy (e.g., proxy 325) canreceive poll intervals for applications across multiple devices andtrack adjusted intervals for applications on multiple devices, as willbe further described with the example of FIG. 3E.

FIG. 3A depicts a block diagram illustrating an example of server-sidecomponents of a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to another embodiment of thesubject matter described herein. FIG. 3A depicts a block diagramillustrating an example of server-side components in a distributed proxyand cache system residing on a host server 300 that manages traffic in awireless network for resource conservation. The server-side proxy (orproxy server 325) can further categorize mobile traffic and/or implementdelivery policies based on application behavior, content priority, useractivity, and/or user expectations and can also facilitate using a useras an end point for profiling and optimizing the delivery of content anddata in a wireless network.

The host server 300 generally includes, for example, a network interface308 and/or one or more repositories 314, 314, and 316. Note that server300 may be any portable/mobile or non-portable device, server, clusterof computers and/or other types of processing units (e.g., any number ofa machine shown in the example of FIG. 11) able to receive or transmitsignals to satisfy data requests over a network including any wired orwireless networks (e.g., WiFi, cellular, Bluetooth, etc.).

The network interface 308 can include networking module(s) or devices(s)that enable the server 300 to mediate data in a network with an entitythat is external to the host server 300, through any known and/orconvenient communications protocol supported by the host and theexternal entity. Specifically, the network interface 308 allows theserver 300 to communicate with multiple devices including mobile phonedevices 350 and/or one or more application servers/content providers310.

The host server 300 can store information about connections (e.g.,network characteristics, conditions, types of connections, etc.) withdevices in the connection metadata repository 314. Additionally, anyinformation about third party application or content providers can alsobe stored in the repository 314. The host server 300 can storeinformation about devices (e.g., hardware capability, properties, devicesettings, device language, network capability, manufacturer, devicemodel, OS, OS version, etc.) in the device information repository 314.Additionally, the host server 300 can store information about networkproviders and the various network service areas in the network serviceprovider repository 316.

The communication enabled by network interface 308 allows forsimultaneous connections (e.g., including cellular connections) withdevices 350 and/or connections (e.g., including wired/wireless, HTTP,Internet connections, LAN, WiFi, etc.) with content servers/providers310 to manage the traffic between devices 350 and content providers 310,for optimizing network resource utilization and/or to conserver power(battery) consumption on the serviced devices 350. The host server 300can communicate with mobile devices 350 serviced by different networkservice providers and/or in the same/different network service areas.The host server 300 can operate and is compatible with devices 350 withvarying types or levels of mobile capabilities, including by way ofexample but not limitation, 1G, 2G, 2G transitional (2.5G, 2.75G), 3G(IMT-2000), 3G transitional (3.5G, 3.75G, 3.9G), 4G (IMT-advanced), etc.

In general, the network interface 308 can include one or more of anetwork adaptor card, a wireless network interface card (e.g., SMSinterface, WiFi interface, interfaces for various generations of mobilecommunication standards including but not limited to 1G, 2G, 3G, 3.5G,4G type networks such as LTE, WiMAX, etc.), Bluetooth, WiFi, or anyother network whether or not connected via a router, an access point, awireless router, a switch, a multilayer switch, a protocol converter, agateway, a bridge, a bridge router, a hub, a digital media receiver,and/or a repeater.

The host server 300 can further include server-side components of thedistributed proxy and cache system which can include a proxy server 325and a server cache 335. In one embodiment, the proxy server 325 caninclude an HTTP access engine 345, a caching policy manager 355, a proxycontroller 365, a traffic shaping engine 375, a new data detector 347and/or a connection manager 395.

The HTTP access engine 345 may further include a heartbeat manager 398;the proxy controller 365 may further include a data invalidator module368; the traffic shaping engine 375 may further include a controlprotocol 376 and a batching module 377. Additional or lesscomponents/modules/engines can be included in the proxy server 325 andeach illustrated component.

As used herein, a “module,” a “manager,” a “handler,” a “detector,” an“interface,” a “controller,” a “normalizer,” a “generator,” an“invalidator,” or an “engine” includes a general purpose, dedicated orshared processor and, typically, firmware or software modules that areexecuted by the processor. Depending upon implementation-specific orother considerations, the module, manager, handler, detector, interface,controller, normalizer, generator, invalidator, or engine can becentralized or its functionality distributed. The module, manager,handler, detector, interface, controller, normalizer, generator,invalidator, or engine can include general or special purpose hardware,firmware, or software embodied in a computer-readable (storage) mediumfor execution by the processor. As used herein, a computer-readablemedium or computer-readable storage medium is intended to include allmediums that are statutory (e.g., in the United States, under 35 U.S.C.101), and to specifically exclude all mediums that are non-statutory innature to the extent that the exclusion is necessary for a claim thatincludes the computer-readable (storage) medium to be valid. Knownstatutory computer-readable mediums include hardware (e.g., registers,random access memory (RAM), non-volatile (NV) storage, to name a few),but may or may not be limited to hardware.

In the example of a device (e.g., mobile device 350) making anapplication or content request to an application server or contentprovider 310, the request may be intercepted and routed to the proxyserver 325 which is coupled to the device 350 and the applicationserver/content provider 310. Specifically, the proxy server is able tocommunicate with the local proxy (e.g., proxy 175 and 275 of theexamples of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 respectively) of the mobile device 350,the local proxy forwards the data request to the proxy server 325 insome instances for further processing and, if needed, for transmissionto the application server/content server 310 for a response to the datarequest.

In such a configuration, the host 300, or the proxy server 325 in thehost server 300 can utilize intelligent information provided by thelocal proxy in adjusting its communication with the device in such amanner that optimizes use of network and device resources. For example,the proxy server 325 can identify characteristics of user activity onthe device 350 to modify its communication frequency. Thecharacteristics of user activity can be determined by, for example, theactivity/behavior awareness module 366 in the proxy controller 365 viainformation collected by the local proxy on the device 350.

In one embodiment, communication frequency can be controlled by theconnection manager 395 of the proxy server 325, for example, to adjustpush frequency of content or updates to the device 350. For instance,push frequency can be decreased by the connection manager 395 whencharacteristics of the user activity indicate that the user is inactive.In one embodiment, when the characteristics of the user activityindicate that the user is subsequently active after a period ofinactivity, the connection manager 395 can adjust the communicationfrequency with the device 350 to send data that was buffered as a resultof decreased communication frequency to the device 350.

In addition, the proxy server 325 includes priority awareness of variousrequests, transactions, sessions, applications, and/or specific events.Such awareness can be determined by the local proxy on the device 350and provided to the proxy server 325. The priority awareness module 367of the proxy server 325 can generally assess the priority (e.g.,including time-criticality, time-sensitivity, etc.) of various events orapplications; additionally, the priority awareness module 367 can trackpriorities determined by local proxies of devices 350.

In one embodiment, through priority awareness, the connection manager395 can further modify communication frequency (e.g., use or radio ascontrolled by the radio controller 396) of the server 300 with thedevices 350. For example, the server 300 can notify the device 350, thusrequesting use of the radio if it is not already in use when data orupdates of an importance/priority level which meets a criteria becomesavailable to be sent.

In one embodiment, the proxy server 325 can detect multiple occurrencesof events (e.g., transactions, content, data received fromserver/provider 310) and allow the events to accumulate for batchtransfer to device 350. Batch transfer can be cumulated and transfer ofevents can be delayed based on priority awareness and/or useractivity/application behavior awareness as tracked by modules 367 and/or366. For example, batch transfer of multiple events (of a lowerpriority) to the device 350 can be initiated by the batching module 377when an event of a higher priority (meeting a threshold or criteria) isdetected at the server 300. In addition, batch transfer from the server300 can be triggered when the server receives data from the device 350,indicating that the device radio is already in use and is thus on. Inone embodiment, the proxy server 325 can order the each messages/packetsin a batch for transmission based on event/transaction priority suchthat higher priority content can be sent first in case connection islost or the battery dies, etc.

In one embodiment, the server 300 caches data (e.g., as managed by thecaching policy manager 355) such that communication frequency over anetwork (e.g., cellular network) with the device 350 can be modified(e.g., decreased). The data can be cached, for example, in the servercache 335 for subsequent retrieval or batch sending to the device 350 topotentially decrease the need to turn on the device 350 radio. Theserver cache 335 can be partially or wholly internal to the host server300, although in the example of FIG. 3A it is shown as being external tothe host 300. In some instances, the server cache 335 may be the same asand/or integrated in part or in whole with another cache managed byanother entity (e.g., the optional caching proxy server 199 shown in theexample of FIG. 1B), such as being managed by an applicationserver/content provider 310, a network service provider, or anotherthird party.

In one embodiment, content caching is performed locally on the device350 with the assistance of host server 300. For example, proxy server325 in the host server 300 can query the application server/provider 310with requests and monitor changes in responses. When changed or newresponses are detected (e.g., by the new data detector 347), the proxyserver 325 can notify the mobile device 350 such that the local proxy onthe device 350 can make the decision to invalidate (e.g., indicated asout-dated) the relevant cache entries stored as any responses in itslocal cache. Alternatively, the data invalidator module 368 canautomatically instruct the local proxy of the device 350 to invalidatecertain cached data, based on received responses from the applicationserver/provider 310. The cached data is marked as invalid, and can getreplaced or deleted when new content is received from the content server310.

Note that data change can be detected by the detector 347 in one or moreways. For example, the server/provider 310 can notify the host server300 upon a change. The change can also be detected at the host server300 in response to a direct poll of the source server/provider 310. Insome instances, the proxy server 325 can in addition, pre-load the localcache on the device 350 with the new/updated data. This can be performedwhen the host server 300 detects that the radio on the mobile device isalready in use, or when the server 300 has additional content/data to besent to the device 350.

One or more the above mechanisms can be implemented simultaneously oradjusted/configured based on application (e.g., different policies fordifferent servers/providers 310). In some instances, the sourceprovider/server 310 may notify the host 300 for certain types of events(e.g., events meeting a priority threshold level). In addition, theprovider/server 310 may be configured to notify the host 300 at specifictime intervals, regardless of event priority.

In one embodiment, the proxy server 325 of the host 300 canmonitor/track responses received for the data request from the contentsource for changed results prior to returning the result to the mobiledevice, such monitoring may be suitable when data request to the contentsource has yielded same results to be returned to the mobile device,thus preventing network/power consumption from being used when no newchanges are made to a particular requested. The local proxy of thedevice 350 can instruct the proxy server 325 to perform such monitoringor the proxy server 325 can automatically initiate such a process uponreceiving a certain number of the same responses (e.g., or a number ofthe same responses in a period of time) for a particular request.

In one embodiment, the server 300, through the activity/behaviorawareness module 366, is able to identify or detect user activity at adevice that is separate from the mobile device 350. For example, themodule 366 may detect that a user's message inbox (e.g., email or typesof inbox) is being accessed. This can indicate that the user isinteracting with his/her application using a device other than themobile device 350 and may not need frequent updates, if at all.

The server 300, in this instance, can thus decrease the frequency withwhich new or updated content is sent to the mobile device 350, oreliminate all communication for as long as the user is detected to beusing another device for access. Such frequency decrease may beapplication specific (e.g., for the application with which the user isinteracting with on another device), or it may be a general frequencydecrease (E.g., since the user is detected to be interacting with oneserver or one application via another device, he/she could also use itto access other services.) to the mobile device 350.

In one embodiment, the host server 300 is able to poll content sources310 on behalf of devices 350 to conserve power or battery consumption ondevices 350. For example, certain applications on the mobile device 350can poll its respective server 310 in a predictable recurring fashion.Such recurrence or other types of application behaviors can be trackedby the activity/behavior module 366 in the proxy controller 365. Thehost server 300 can thus poll content sources 310 for applications onthe mobile device 350 that would otherwise be performed by the device350 through a wireless (e.g., including cellular connectivity). The hostserver can poll the sources 310 for new or changed data by way of theHTTP access engine 345 to establish HTTP connection or by way of radiocontroller 396 to connect to the source 310 over the cellular network.When new or changed data is detected, the new data detector 347 cannotify the device 350 that such data is available and/or provide thenew/changed data to the device 350.

In one embodiment, the connection manager 395 determines that the mobiledevice 350 is unavailable (e.g., the radio is turned off) and utilizesSMS to transmit content to the device 350, for instance, via the SMSCshown in the example of FIG. 1B. SMS is used to transmit invalidationmessages, batches of invalidation messages, or even content in the casewhere the content is small enough to fit into just a few (usually one ortwo) SMS messages. This avoids the need to access the radio channel tosend overhead information. The host server 300 can use SMS for certaintransactions or responses having a priority level above a threshold orotherwise meeting a criteria. The server 300 can also utilize SMS as anout-of-band trigger to maintain or wake-up an IP connection as analternative to maintaining an always-on IP connection.

In one embodiment, the connection manager 395 in the proxy server 325(e.g., the heartbeat manager 398) can generate and/or transmit heartbeatmessages on behalf of connected devices 350 to maintain a backendconnection with a provider 310 for applications running on devices 350.

For example, in the distributed proxy system, local cache on the device350 can prevent any or all heartbeat messages needed to maintain TCP/IPconnections required for applications from being sent over the cellular,or other, network and instead rely on the proxy server 325 on the hostserver 300 to generate and/or send the heartbeat messages to maintain aconnection with the backend (e.g., application server/provider 110 inthe example of FIG. 1A). The proxy server can generate the keep-alive(heartbeat) messages independent of the operations of the local proxy onthe mobile device.

The repositories 314, 314, and/or 316 can additionally store software,descriptive data, images, system information, drivers, and/or any otherdata item utilized by other components of the host server 300 and/or anyother servers for operation. The repositories may be managed by adatabase management system (DBMS), for example, which may be but is notlimited to Oracle, DB2, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server,PostgreSQL, MySQL, FileMaker, etc.

The repositories can be implemented via object-oriented technologyand/or via text files and can be managed by a distributed databasemanagement system, an object-oriented database management system(OODBMS) (e.g., ConceptBase, FastDB Main Memory Database ManagementSystem, JDOInstruments, ObjectDB, etc.), an object-relational databasemanagement system (ORDBMS) (e.g., Informix, OpenLink Virtuoso, VMDS,etc.), a file system, and/or any other convenient or known databasemanagement package.

FIG. 3B depicts a block diagram illustrating a further example ofcomponents in the caching policy manager of a distributed proxy andcache system for providing APIs and API extensions to third partyapplications for optimizing and minimizing application traffic accordingto another embodiment of the subject matter described herein, which iscapable of caching and adapting caching strategies for mobileapplication behavior and/or network conditions and which is also capableof detecting long poll requests and managing caching of long polls. FIG.3B depicts a block diagram illustrating a further example of componentsin the caching policy manager 355 in the cache system shown in theexample of FIG. 3A which is capable of caching and adapting cachingstrategies for application (e.g., mobile application) behavior and/ornetwork conditions.

The caching policy manager 355, in one embodiment, can further include ametadata generator 303, a cache look-up engine 305, an applicationprotocol module 356, a content source monitoring engine 357 having apoll schedule manager 358, a response analyzer 361, and/or an updated ornew content detector 359. In one embodiment, the poll schedule manager358 further includes a host timing simulator 358A, a long poll requestdetector/manager 358B, a schedule update engine 358C, and/or a timeadjustment engine 358D. The metadata generator 303 and/or the cachelook-up engine 305 can be coupled to the cache 335 (or, server cache)for modification or addition to cache entries or querying thereof.

In one embodiment, the proxy server (e.g., the proxy server 145 or 325of the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A) can monitor a content source fornew or changed data via the monitoring engine 357. The proxy server, asshown, is an entity external to the mobile device 250 of FIG. 2A-B. Thecontent source (e.g., application server/content provider 110 of FIG.1B) can be one that has been identified to the proxy server (e.g., bythe local proxy) as having content that is being locally cached on amobile device (e.g., mobile device 150 or 250). The content source canbe monitored, for example, by the monitoring engine 357 at a frequencythat is based on polling frequency of the content source at the mobiledevice. The poll schedule can be generated, for example, by the localproxy and sent to the proxy server. The poll frequency can be trackedand/or managed by the poll schedule manager 358.

For example, the proxy server can poll the host (e.g., contentprovider/application server) on behalf of the mobile device and simulatethe polling behavior of the client to the host via the host timingsimulator 358A. The polling behavior can be simulated to includecharacteristics of a long poll request-response sequences experienced ina persistent connection with the host (e.g., by the long poll requestdetector/manager 358B). Note that once a polling interval/behavior isset, the local proxy 275 on the device-side and/or the proxy server 325on the server-side can verify whether application and applicationserver/content host behavior match or can be represented by thispredicted pattern. In general, the local proxy and/or the proxy servercan detect deviations and, when appropriate, re-evaluate and compute,determine, or estimate another polling interval.

In one embodiment, the caching policy manager 355 on the server-side ofthe distribute proxy can, in conjunction with or independent of theproxy server 275 on the mobile device, identify or detect long pollrequests. For example, the caching policy manager 355 can determine athreshold value to be used in comparison with a response delay intervaltime (interval time ‘D’ shown in the example timing diagram of FIG.17A-B) in a request-response sequence for an application request toidentify or detect long poll requests, possible long poll requests(e.g., requests for a persistent connection with a host with which theclient communicates including, but not limited to, a long-held HTTPrequest, a persistent connection enabling COMET style push, request forHTTP streaming, etc.), or other requests which can otherwise be treatedas a long poll request.

For example, the threshold value can be determined by the proxy 325using response delay interval times for requests generated byclients/applications across mobile devices which may be serviced bymultiple different cellular or wireless networks. Since the proxy 325resides on host 300 is able to communicate with multiple mobile devicesvia multiple networks, the caching policy manager 355 has access toapplication/client information at a global level which can be used insetting threshold values to categorize and detect long polls.

By tracking response delay interval times across applications acrossdevices over different or same networks, the caching policy manager 355can set one or more threshold values to be used in comparison withresponse delay interval times for long poll detection. Threshold valuesset by the proxy server 325 can be static or dynamic, and can beassociated with conditions and/or a time-to-live (an expirationtime/date in relative or absolute terms).

In addition, the caching policy manager 355 of the proxy 325 can furtherdetermine the threshold value, in whole or in part, based on networkdelays of a given wireless network, networks serviced by a given carrier(service provider), or multiple wireless networks. The proxy 325 canalso determine the threshold value for identification of long pollrequests based on delays of one or more application server/contentprovider (e.g., 110) to which application (e.g., mobile application) ormobile client requests are directed.

The proxy server can detect new or changed data at a monitored contentsource and transmits a message to the mobile device notifying it of sucha change such that the mobile device (or the local proxy on the mobiledevice) can take appropriate action (e.g., to invalidate the cacheelements in the local cache). In some instances, the proxy server (e.g.,the caching policy manager 355) upon detecting new or changed data canalso store the new or changed data in its cache (e.g., the server cache135 or 335 of the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A, respectively). Thenew/updated data stored in the server cache 335 can be used in someinstances to satisfy content requests at the mobile device; for example,it can be used after the proxy server has notified the mobile device ofthe new/changed content and that the locally cached content has beeninvalidated.

The metadata generator 303, similar to the metadata generator 203 shownin the example of FIG. 2B, can generate metadata for responses cachedfor requests at the mobile device 250. The metadata generator 303 cangenerate metadata for cache entries stored in the server cache 335.Similarly, the cache look-up engine 305 can include the same or similarfunctions are those described for the cache look-up engine 205 shown inthe example of FIG. 2B.

The response analyzer 361 can perform any or all of the functionalitiesrelated to analyzing responses received for requests generated at themobile device 250 in the same or similar fashion to the responseanalyzer 246D of the local proxy shown in the example of FIG. 2B. Sincethe proxy server 325 is able to receive responses from the applicationserver/content source 310 directed to the mobile device 250, the proxyserver 325 (e.g., the response analyzer 361) can perform similarresponse analysis steps to determine cacheability, as described for theresponse analyzer of the local proxy. Examples of response analysisprocedures are also described in conjunction with the flow charts shownin the examples of FIG. 11-13. The responses can be analyzed in additionto or in lieu of the analysis that can be performed at the local proxy275 on the mobile device 250.

Furthermore, the schedule update engine 358C can update the pollinginterval of a given application server/content host based on applicationrequest interval changes of the application at the mobile device 250 asdescribed for the schedule update engine in the local proxy 275. Thetime adjustment engine 358D can set an initial time at which polls ofthe application server/content host is to begin to prevent the servingof out of date content once again before serving fresh content asdescribed for the schedule update engine in the local proxy 275. Boththe schedule updating and the time adjustment algorithms can beperformed in conjunction with or in lieu of the similar processesperformed at the local proxy 275 on the mobile device 250.

FIG. 3C depicts a block diagram illustrating another example ofcomponents of a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to another embodiment of thesubject matter described herein, which is further capable of managingand detecting cache defeating mechanisms and monitoring content sources.FIG. 3C depicts a block diagram illustrating another example ofcomponents in the caching policy manager 355 in the proxy server 375 onthe server-side of the distributed proxy system shown in the example ofFIG. 3A which is capable of managing and detecting cache defeatingmechanisms and monitoring content sources.

The caching policy manager 355, in one embodiment, can further include acache defeating source manager 352, a content source monitoring engine357 having a poll schedule manager 358, and/or an updated or new contentdetector 359. The cache defeating source manager 352 can further includean identifier modifier module 353 and/or an identifier pattern trackingmodule 354.

In one embodiment, the proxy server (e.g., the proxy server 145 or 325of the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A) can monitor a content source fornew or changed data via the monitoring engine 357. The content source(e.g., application server/content provider 110 of FIG. 1B or 310 of FIG.3A) can be one that has been identified to the proxy server (e.g., bythe local proxy) as having content that is being locally cached on amobile device (e.g., mobile device 150 or 250). The content source 310can be monitored, for example, by the monitoring engine 357 at afrequency that is based on polling frequency of the content source atthe mobile device. The poll schedule can be generated, for example, bythe local proxy and sent to the proxy server 325. The poll frequency canbe tracked and/or managed by the poll schedule manager 358.

In one embodiment, the proxy server 325 uses a normalized identifier ormodified identifier in polling the content source 310 to detect new orchanged data (responses). The normalized identifier or modifiedidentifier can also be used by the proxy server 325 in storing responseson the server cache 335. In general, the normalized or modifiedidentifiers can be used when cache defeat mechanisms are employed forcacheable content. Cache defeat mechanisms can be in the form of achanging parameter in an identifier such as a URI or URL and can includea changing time/data parameter, a randomly varying parameter, or othertypes parameters.

The normalized identifier or modified identifier removes or otherwisereplaces the changing parameter for association with subsequent requestsand identification of associated responses and can also be used to pollthe content source. In one embodiment, the modified identifier isgenerated by the cache defeating source manager 352 (e.g., theidentifier modifier module 353) of the caching policy manager 355 on theproxy server 325 (server-side component of the distributed proxysystem). The modified identifier can utilize a substitute parameter(which is generally static over a period of time) in place of thechanging parameter that is used to defeat cache.

The cache defeating source manager 352 optionally includes theidentifier pattern tracking module 354 to track, store, and monitor thevarious modifications of an identifier or identifiers that addresscontent for one or more content sources (e.g., applicationserver/content host 110 or 310) to continuously verify that the modifiedidentifiers and/or normalized identifiers used by the proxy server 325to poll the content sources work as predicted or intended (e.g., receivethe same responses or responses that are otherwise still relevantcompared to the original, unmodified identifier).

In the event that the pattern tracking module 354 detects a modificationor normalization of an identifier that causes erratic or unpredictablebehavior (e.g., unexpected responses to be sent) on the content source,the tracking module 354 can log the modification and instruct the cachedefeating source manager 352 to generate anothermodification/normalization, or notify the local proxy (e.g., local proxy275) to generate another modification/normalization for use in pollingthe content source. In the alternative or in parallel, the requests fromthe given mobile application/client on the mobile device (e.g., mobiledevice 250) can temporarily be sent across the network to the contentsource for direct responses to be provided to the mobile device and/oruntil a modification of an identifier which works can be generated.

In one embodiment, responses are stored as server cache elements in theserver cache when new or changed data is detected for a response that isalready stored on a local cache (e.g., cache 285) of the mobile device(e.g., mobile device 250). Therefore, the mobile device or local proxy275 can connect to the proxy server 325 to retrieve the new or changeddata for a response to a request which was previously cached locally inthe local cache 285 (now invalid, out-dated, or otherwise determined tobe irrelevant).

The proxy server 325 can detect new or changed data at a monitoredapplication server/content host 310 and transmits a message to themobile device notifying it of such a change such that the mobile device(or the local proxy on the mobile device) can take appropriate action(e.g., to invalidate the cache elements in the local cache). In someinstances, the proxy server (e.g., the caching policy manager 355), upondetecting new or changed data, can also store the new or changed data inits cache (e.g., the server cache 135 or 335 of the examples of FIG. 1Band FIG. 3A, respectively). The updated/new data stored in the servercache can be used, in some instances, to satisfy content requests at themobile device; for example, it can be used after the proxy server hasnotified the mobile device of the new/changed content and that thelocally cached content has been invalidated.

FIG. 3D depicts a block diagram illustrating examples of additionalcomponents of a distributed proxy and cache system for providing APIsand API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to another embodiment of thesubject matter described herein, which is further capable of performingmobile traffic categorization and policy implementation based onapplication behavior and/or traffic priority. FIG. 3D depicts a blockdiagram illustrating examples of additional components in proxy server325 shown in the example of FIG. 3A which is further capable ofperforming mobile traffic categorization and policy implementation basedon application behavior and/or traffic priority.

In one embodiment of the proxy server 325, the traffic shaping engine375 is further coupled to a traffic analyzer 336 for categorizing mobiletraffic for policy definition and implementation for mobile traffic andtransactions directed to one or more mobile devices (e.g., mobile device250 of FIG. 2A-2D) or to an application server/content host (e.g., 110of FIG. 1A-1B). In general, the proxy server 325 is remote from themobile devices and remote from the host server, as shown in the examplesof FIG. 1A-1B. The proxy server 325 or the host server 300 can monitorthe traffic for multiple mobile devices and is capable of categorizingtraffic and devising traffic policies for different mobile devices.

In addition, the proxy server 325 or host server 300 can operate withmultiple carriers or network operators and can implementcarrier-specific policies relating to categorization of traffic andimplementation of traffic policies for the various categories. Forexample, the traffic analyzer 336 of the proxy server 325 or host server300 can include one or more of, a prioritization engine 341A, a timecriticality detection engine 341B, an application state categorizer341C, and/or an application traffic categorizer 341D.

Each of these engines or modules can track different criterion for whatis considered priority, time critical, background/foreground, orinteractive/maintenance based on different wireless carriers. Differentcriterion may also exist for different mobile device types (e.g., devicemodel, manufacturer, operating system, etc.). In some instances, theuser of the mobile devices can adjust the settings or criterionregarding traffic category and the proxy server 325 is able to track andimplement these user adjusted/configured settings.

In one embodiment, the traffic analyzer 336 is able to detect,determined, identify, or infer, the activity state of an application onone or more mobile devices (e.g., mobile device 150 or 250) whichtraffic has originated from or is directed to, for example, via theapplication state categorizer 341C and/or the traffic categorizer 341D.The activity state can be determined based on whether the application isin a foreground or background state on one or more of the mobile devices(via the application state categorizer 341C) since the traffic for aforeground application vs. a background application may be handleddifferently to optimize network use.

In the alternate or in combination, the activity state of an applicationcan be determined by the wirelessly connected mobile devices (e.g, viathe application behavior detectors in the local proxies) andcommunicated to the proxy server 325. For example, the activity statecan be determined, detected, identified, or inferred with a level ofcertainty of heuristics, based on the backlight status at mobile devices(e.g., by a backlight detector) or other software agents or hardwaresensors on the mobile device, including but not limited to, resistivesensors, capacitive sensors, ambient light sensors, motion sensors,touch sensors, etc. In general, if the backlight is on, the traffic canbe treated as being or determined to be generated from an applicationthat is active or in the foreground, or the traffic is interactive. Inaddition, if the backlight is on, the traffic can be treated as being ordetermined to be traffic from user interaction or user activity, ortraffic containing data that the user is expecting within some timeframe.

The activity state can be determined from assessing, determining,evaluating, inferring, identifying user activity at the mobile device250 (e.g., via the user activity module 215) and communicated to theproxy server 325. In one embodiment, the activity state is determinedbased on whether the traffic is interactive traffic or maintenancetraffic. Interactive traffic can include transactions from responses andrequests generated directly from user activity/interaction with anapplication and can include content or data that a user is waiting orexpecting to receive. Maintenance traffic may be used to support thefunctionality of an application which is not directly detected by auser. Maintenance traffic can also include actions or transactions thatmay take place in response to a user action, but the user is notactively waiting for or expecting a response.

The time criticality detection engine 341B can generally determine,identify, infer the time sensitivity of data contained in traffic sentfrom the mobile device 250 or to the mobile device from the host server300 or proxy server 325, or the application server (e.g., appserver/content source 110). For example, time sensitive data caninclude, status updates, stock information updates, IM presenceinformation, email messages or other messages, actions generated frommobile gaming applications, webpage requests, location updates, etc.

Data that is not time sensitive or time critical, by nature of thecontent or request, can include requests to delete messages,mark-as-read or edited actions, application-specific actions such as aadd-friend or delete-friend request, certain types of messages, or otherinformation which does not frequently changing by nature, etc. In someinstances when the data is not time critical, the timing with which toallow the traffic to be sent to a mobile device is based on when thereis additional data that needs to the sent to the same mobile device. Forexample, traffic shaping engine 375 can align the traffic with one ormore subsequent transactions to be sent together in a single power-onevent of the mobile device radio (e.g, using the alignment module 378and/or the batching module 377). The alignment module 378 can also alignpolling requests occurring close in time directed to the same hostserver, since these request are likely to be responded to with the samedata.

In general, whether new or changed data is sent from a host server to amobile device can be determined based on whether an application on themobile device to which the new or changed data is relevant, is runningin a foreground (e.g., by the application state categorizer 341C), orthe priority or time criticality of the new or changed data. The proxyserver 325 can send the new or changed data to the mobile device if theapplication is in the foreground on the mobile device, or if theapplication is in the foreground and in an active state interacting witha user on the mobile device, and/or whether a user is waiting for aresponse that would be provided in the new or changed data. The proxyserver 325 (or traffic shaping engine 375) can send the new or changeddata that is of a high priority or is time critical.

Similarly, the proxy server 325 (or the traffic shaping engine 375) cansuppressing the sending of the new or changed data if the application isin the background on the mobile device. The proxy server 325 can alsosuppress the sending of the new or changed data if the user is notwaiting for the response provided in the new or changed data; whereinthe suppressing is performed by a proxy server coupled to the hostserver and able to wirelessly connect to the mobile device.

In general, if data, including new or change data is of a low priorityor is not time critical, the proxy server can waiting to transfer thedata until after a time period, or until there is additional data to besent (e.g. via the alignment module 378 and/or the batching module 377).

FIG. 3E depicts a block diagram illustrating examples of additionalcomponents in the traffic shaping engine of a distributed proxy andcache system for providing APIs and API extensions to third partyapplications for optimizing and minimizing application traffic accordingto another embodiment of the subject matter described herein, which isfurther capable of aligning data transfer to a mobile or broadbanddevice, or other recipient, to optimize connections established fortransmission in a wireless network or broadband network. FIG. 3E depictsa block diagram illustrating examples of additional components in thetraffic shaping engine 375 of the example of FIG. 3A which is furthercapable of aligning data transfer to a mobile or broadband device, orother recipient, to optimize connections established for transmission ina wireless network or broadband network.

In one embodiment of the proxy server 325, the traffic shaping engine375 further includes a notification engine 379 and the alignment module378 includes an adjusted poll tracker 378A and the batching module 377further includes a connection trigger 377A.

In one embodiment, the proxy server 325 is able to poll distinct hostsservicing various applications (e.g., first and second services) on agiven mobile device at a schedule. The polling schedule can be set bythe local proxy (e.g., proxy 275 of FIG. 2A-2E) and can include assignedpolling intervals for applications on a mobile device (e.g., device 250)which may have been adjusted. The polling schedules can be tracked bythe adjusted poll tracker 378A in the alignment module 378 of thetraffic shaping engine 375 in the proxy server 325, for example. Theadjusted polling intervals of one service/one application can bedetermined based on the polling interval of another service on themobile device, such that data received at the remote proxy 325 can beprovided to the mobile device in batch, for example, by the batchingmodule 377.

The polling schedule can also include an initial start time (t0) tostart polling on behalf of multiple applications on a given mobiledevice. The initial start time (e.g., a mutual starting point in time)of a first poll of the distinct hosts servicing the first and secondservices can be selected, for example, by the local proxy 275 (e.g.,proxy 275 of FIG. 2A-2E), and in some instances, by the proxy server325. When determined by the local proxy, the local proxy communicatesthe mutual starting point in time for polls to the proxy server 325. Inone embodiment, the mutual starting point in time is set to be in thefuture to compensate for communication delay.

In one embodiment, if a given mobile client/mobile application is not onor active, or if a given mobile device 250 is not connected to thewireless network, the connection trigger 377A can send a trigger (e.g.,out of band) trigger to the mobile device or the local proxy on themobile device to request that the radio be powered and/or to activateone or more relevant applications. For example, the batching module 377may have batched various content or data to be sent for multipleapplications on a given mobile device and if the mobileclients/applications are not on or active, the connection trigger 377Acan send a trigger requesting the application to activate.Alternatively, the notification engine 379 can send the mobile device250 an indication that there is data ready to be sent, requesting themobile device 250 to power on the radio if currently in off-mode.

Note that the proxy server 325 monitors multiple mobile devices andtracks application characteristics and user behavior/characteristicsacross multiple devices, users, and networks. Thus, the above describedfeatures pertaining to adjusted poll interval trackers, although drawnto an example directed to multiple applications on a given device, notethat the same is tracked for multiple devices, having installed thereonits own other set of applications, for which adjusted poll intervals orpolling schedules are computed based on applications on each mobiledevice by, for example the local proxy residing there on (e.g., thecomponents illustrated in FIG. 2E of a local proxy 275 which may beinstalled on one or more of the multiple mobile devices serviced by theproxy server 325).

Note that since the proxy server 325 manages the traffic to/frommultiple mobile devices, in one network, across networks, in onegeographical locale, across multiple geographical locales, for onenetwork operator, or across multiple network operators, the proxy server325 can align traffic and batch transfer of data based on overview oraggregate data of traffic conditions or network conditions. The proxyserver 325 can prioritize data transfer to mobile devices, for example,when network congestion is detected. For example, the proxy server 325can transfer data to mobile devices where the type or level ofsubscription of the device user, tiered or staggered based on highestpriority of content to be transferred to be the mobile devices (e.g., abatch of data may be transferred first to mobile device A, compared tomobile device B, when the highest priority data for device A is ofhigher priority than device B).

Note that there may be one proxy server 325 for a geographical locale,or for a specific network operator, for a type of web service, or anycombination of the above, for example. Based on the different servicingentities, the proxy server 325 can aggregate different types ofinformation pertaining to network traffic, operator settings,application preferences/requirements, user preferences,subscription-related parameters, various combination of the above can beused by the proxy 325 in optimizing connections need to be establishedby receiving mobile devices. Multiple proxy servers 325 servicingdifferent networks in a geographical locale, different operators canshare traffic, subscription, user, or application level informationthere between, to further facilitate network resource utilization,traffic management, and in some instances to facilitate alignment ofdata transfer to mobile devices.

FIG. 4A depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example process fordistributed content caching between a mobile device (e.g., any wirelessdevice) and remote proxy and the distributed management of contentcaching according to an embodiment of the subject matter describedherein. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4A, the process startswhen a request is received (step 402). The URL is normalized (step 404),and the request is checked to determine whether it is cacheable (step406.) If, at step 406, the request is not cacheable, the request is sent(step 408), a response to the request is received (step 410), and theresponse is delivered (step 422.) If, at step 406, the request isdetermined to be cacheable, a cache lookup is performed to see if therequest has been cached (step 414).

If, at step 414, the request is not found in the cache, the request issent (step 416.) When a response to the request is received (step 418),the response is checked to determine whether it is cacheable (step 426.)If, at step 426, the response is not cacheable, the response isdelivered (step 422.) If the response is cacheable, the response iscached (step 420), the request is polled (step 414), and the response isdelivered (step 422.)

If, at step 414, the request is found in the cache, the cache entry ischecked for validity (step 424.) If, at step 424, the request isdetermined to be invalid, the process goes to step 416 and continuesfrom there. If, at step 424, the request is determined to be valid, theprocess checks that the request contains a validator (step 428.) If, atstep 428, the request contains a validator, then a validating responseis formed (step 432) and delivered (step 422). If, at step 428, therequest does not contain a validator, a response is formed from thecache (step 430) and delivered (step 422.)

FIG. 4B depicts a timing diagram showing how data requests from a mobiledevice (e.g., any wireless device) to an application server/contentprovider in a wireless network (or broadband network) can be coordinatedby a distributed proxy system in a manner such that network and batteryresources are conserved through using content caching and monitoringperformed by the distributed proxy system. In the embodiment illustratedin FIG. 4B, a distributed proxy system 460 includes a mobile device 450,a server-side component 470, and an application server/content provider(AS/CP) 495. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4B, mobile device 450includes a home screen widget 455 and a local proxy 465, and server-sidecomponents 470 include a caching proxy 475 and a host server 485.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4B, home screen widget 455 issuesa data request 452 to AS/CP 495, and AS/CP 495 sends a data response 454to home screen widget 455. In one embodiment, both the data request andthe data response travel through at least one of the local proxy 465,caching proxy 475, and host server 485. Local proxy 465 may then issue aproxied data request 456 to caching proxy 475, which may respond with aproxied data response 458.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4B, home screen widget 455 maythen issue a monitor data request 462, which is received by host server485 and forwarded or reissued as monitor data request 464 to AS/CP 495.AS/CP 495 may then issue the same response 466. If home screen widget455 issues a proxied data request 468, local proxy 465 may satisfy thatrequest by issuing a response from local cache 472 and thus avoidtraffic between mobile device 450 and server-side components 470.Meanwhile, host server 485 may continue to issue periodic monitor datarequests 474. If AS/CP 495 issues a changed response 476 (i.e., aresponse that is different from the previous response 466), host server485 forwards the changed response 476 Thus, when home screen widgetissues the next proxied data request 482, local proxy 465 will notrespond from its local cache 472 but will instead forward the datarequest 482 to caching proxy 475, and caching proxy 475 will satisfythat request from its cache.

FIG. 5 depicts a table showing examples of different traffic orapplication category types which can be used in implementing networkaccess and content delivery policies according to an embodiment of thesubject matter described herein. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG.5, traffic category/application category table 500 includes a number ofcategories, including, but not limited to, interactive traffic versusbackground traffic, applications where the user is waiting for aresponse versus not waiting for a response, applications that are in theforeground versus in the background, and device states where thebacklight is on or off. As will be described in more detail below, inone embodiment, if a device backlight is off, that may be taken as asign that the user is not actively using that device and thereforemaximum signaling optimization, including blocking, may be appropriate.Likewise, if the device backlight is on, that may be an indication thatthe user is actively using the device and therefore signalingoptimization and/or blocking may be curtailed or stopped completely.

FIG. 6 depicts a table showing examples of different content categorytypes which can be used in implementing network access and contentdelivery policies according to an embodiment of the subject matterdescribed herein. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6, contentcategory table 600 includes a number of categories, including, but notlimited to, high priority content, low priority content, time criticalcontent, and non-time critical content. In one embodiment, some or allof these factors may be taken into account when determining whetheroptimization and/or blocking should or should not be enabled.

FIG. 7 depicts an interaction diagram showing how polls having datarequests from a mobile device (e.g., any wireless device) to anapplication server/content provider over a wireless network (orbroadband network) can be can be cached on the local proxy and managedby the distributed caching system according to an embodiment of thesubject matter described herein. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG.7, at step 732, Mobile application/widget 755 polls applicationserver/content provider 795. At step 734, local proxy 765 intercepts thepoll. At step 736, local proxy 765 detects that cache content isavailable for the polled content and is valid and thus retrieves aresponse to satisfy the poll. At step 738, mobile application/widget 755receives a response to the poll from a cache entry, provided by localproxy 765.

At step 740, mobile application/widget 755 again polls applicationserver/content provider 795. At step 742, local proxy 765 intercepts thepoll. At step 744, local proxy 765 detects that cache content isunavailable and decides to set up the polled source for caching. At step746, local proxy 765 forwards the poll request to the source. At step748, application server/content provider 795 receives the poll requestfrom the mobile application/widget 755 and provides a response tosatisfy the current request. At step 750, mobile application/widget 755receives the response to satisfy the request from the applicationserver/content provider 795.

At step 752, local proxy 765 tracks polling frequency of the applicationand sets up a polling schedule for the server-side entity. Server sideentities include, but are not limited to, a host server 785, a servercache 735, and a caching proxy 775. At step 754, local proxy 765 sendsthe cache setup to the server-side entity. At step 756, the server-sideentity receives the cache setup including an identification of theapplication server/content provider 795 to be polled and a pollingschedule. At step 758, the server-side entity polls the applicationserver/content provider 795 to monitor the response to the request. Atstep 760, application server/content provider 795 receives the poll fromthe server-side entity and sends the response. At step 762, theserver-side entity receives the same response and then polls theapplication server/content provider 795 again based on the pollingschedule. At step 764, application server/content provider 795 receivespoll from the server-side entity and sends the response. At step 766,the server-side entity detects changed or new response and notifies thelocal proxy 765 that the response has changed since the last time. Atstep 768, the server-side entity stores the new or changed response inthe server-side entity. At step 770, local proxy 765 receivesnotification that new or changed data is available, and in response,invalidates the relevant cache entries.

At step 772, mobile application/widget 755 polls applicationserver/content provider 795. At step 774, local proxy 765 determinesthat no valid cache entry is available and requests a response from theserver-side entity. At step 776, the server-side entity receives therequest for the new response and sends the response to the local proxy765. At step 778, the request is satisfied from the server-side entity,e.g., the server side entity sends the response to mobileapplication/widget 755.

At step 780, mobile application/widget 755 polls applicationserver/content provider 795. At step 782, local proxy 765 determinesthat no valid cache entry is available and forwards the poll to theapplication server/content provider 795. At step 784, applicationserver/content provider 795 receives the poll from local proxy 765 andsends the response. At step 786, the request from mobileapplication/widget 755 is satisfied by the application server/contentprovider 795.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process for userbehavior-based resource allocation in a wireless network. In theembodiment illustrated in FIG. 8, the process includes tracking userbehavior with respect that user's mobile usage (step 802) and recordingthe user's behavior (step 804.) The characteristics and patterns of theuser's behavior are stored in a user behavior profile for that user(step 806.)

At step 808, mobile usage by the user is detected. At step 810,resources in the wireless network are allocated to the user based on theuser's user behavior profile, and at step 812, the allocated resourcesare controlled based on the user's behavior with respect to mobileusage. For example, the radio circuits of the user's mobile device maybe throttled or otherwise controlled to limit the number of times theradio circuits have to be powered up (step 814) and/or control theamount of time the powered-up radio circuits are active before poweringthem down again. Controlling allocated resources may include controllingthe bandwidth in the wireless network allocated to the user.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process for contentconsumption-based resource allocation to a user in a wireless network.In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 9, the process includes detectingor identifying sessions of mobile usage of a user (step 902) andtracking content consumption in the sessions of mobile usage for theuser (step 904), tracking the sessions of mobile usage for the useracross multiple mobile devices (step 906), and aggregating or computingstatistical data related to the content consumption in the sessions ofthe mobile usage (step 908.) This process is illustrated in more detailin FIG. 10, described below. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 9,the process includes facilitating control of the resource allocated tothe user in the wireless network based on the statistical data of thecontent consumption of the user's mobile usage (step 910.)

FIG. 10 illustrates a flow chart showing examples of statisticsaggregated or computed for content consumption in a wireless network. Inthe embodiment illustrated in FIG. 10, aggregation or computation ofstatistical data related to the content consumption (step 1002) caninclude one or more of the following: determining the frequency of thecontent consumption (step 1004), determining the amount of the contentconsumption (step 1006), determining timing parameters related to thecontent consumption (step 1008), and determining content consumptiontracked on an application-by-application basis (step 1010).

FIG. 11 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process forcollecting information about a request and the associated response toidentify cacheability and caching the response according to anembodiment of the subject matter described herein. In the embodimentillustrated in FIG. 11, a process for determining whether a response iscacheable includes collecting information about a request andinformation about the response received for the request (step 1102) andthen using the information about either the request initiated (step1104) or the response received (step 1106) to determine whether or notthe request is cacheable (sub-process “A”, described in more detail inFIG. 14, below.) At step 1108, it is determined whether the request iscacheable. If not, the response is not cached (step 1110), and theprocess returns to step 1102. If the request is cacheable, the responseis stored in the cache as a cache entry, including metadata havingadditional information regarding caching of the response (step 1114.)

Once the response has been cached, at least two events can occur. Thefirst event is the detection of a subsequent request (step 1114.) Whenthis happens, a cache look-up is performed in the local cache toidentify the cache entry to be used when responding to the subsequentrequest (step 1116), and the response is served from the cache tosatisfy the subsequent request (step 1118.) The second event is aninvalidation event, in which case it is determined whether the responsecurrently stored in the cache needs to be updated (step 1120.) If so,the response stored in the cache of the mobile device is invalidatedand/or removed from the cache (step 1122.)

FIG. 12 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process showingdecision flows to determine whether a response to a request can becached according to an embodiment of the subject matter describedherein. The flow chart in FIG. 12 illustrates in more detail thesub-process “A” referred to in FIG. 11. In the embodiment illustrated inFIG. 12, sub-process “A” starts with a determination whether the requestis directed to a black-listed destination (step 1202.) If yes, theresponse is not cached (step 1285.) If the request is not directed to ablack-listed destination, then the process can include analyzing therequest characteristics information associated with the request (step1204), analyzing the response characteristics information associatedwith the response received for the request (step 1206), or both.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 12, request analysis 1204 caninclude a number of tests. For example, the request method may beidentified (step 1208) and the request may be deemed cacheable or notcacheable based on the method (step 1214.) The size of the request maybe checked (step 1210) and a request may be cached if the requestdoesn't exceed a threshold size (step 1216.) In one embodiment, theperiodicity of information between the request and other requestsgenerated by the same client may be determined (step 1214), and requeststhat are identified as periodic are cached while non-periodic requestsare not cached (step 1218.) In one embodiment, requests that satisfy acaching requirement may be cached (step 1295) while those that do notsatisfy any caching requirements are not cached (step 1285.) In analternative embodiment, requests that fail any caching requirement arenot cached, i.e., they must meet all caching requirements before theyare cached.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 12, response analysis 1206 canalso include a number of tests to determine cacheability. For example, aresponse may be identified as cacheable or not cacheable based on itsstatus code (steps 1220 and 1228), based on the size of the response(steps 1222 and 1230), based on whether the response body includesdynamic content (steps 1224 and 1232), and/or whether or not transferencoding is used in the response (step 1226.)

FIG. 13 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process fordetermining potential for cacheability based on request periodicityand/or response repeatability according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 13, theprocess for determining potential cacheability includes both trackingrequests generated by the client to detect periodicity of the requests(step 1302) and tracking responses received for requests generated bythe client to detect repeatability in content of the responses (step1304.)

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 13, request tracking 1302 mayinclude determining if there are predictable patterns in the timing ofthe request (step 1306) and/or determining whether request intervalsfall within a tolerance level (step 1308.) If either test returns“true”, the response content can be cached (step 1395); otherwise, theresponse is not cached (step 1385.)

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 13, response tracking 1304 mayinclude examining hash values generated from the response bodies of theresponses (step 1310) and/or examining status codes associated with theresponses (step 1314.) If either test indicates that the responses arethe same or that there is a similarity in the content of at least two ofthe responses (step 1314), the response content can be cached (step1395); otherwise, the response is not cached (step 1385.)

FIG. 14 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process fordynamically adjusting caching parameters for a given request or clientaccording to an embodiment of the subject matter described herein. Inthe embodiment illustrated in FIG. 14, the process for dynamicallyadjusting caching parameters includes tracking requests generated by aclient or directed to a host at the mobile device to detect periodicityof the requests (step 1402.) If it is determined that the requestintervals between two or more requests are the same or approximately thesame (step 1404) or that the request intervals between two more requestsfall within a tolerance level (step 1406), those requests may beidentified as being periodic, and the process may take one or more of anumber of actions.

For example, in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 14, if a response isreceived for a request that has been identified as being periodic (step1408), that response may be cached as a cache entry in a cache of themobile device (step 1414.) The host may be monitored at a rate to verifyrelevance or validity of the cache entry (step 1414), after which theresponse may be served from the cache to satisfy a subsequent request(step 1416.) In one embodiment, step 1414 may be skipped.

Alternatively or in addition, a rate to monitor a host may be determinedfrom the request intervals (step 1410.) After this, the rate at whichthe given host is monitored to verify relevance or validity of the cacheentry may be set or updated (step 1420). This value may be used by step1414. Alternatively, after step 1410, a change in request intervals forrequests generated by the client may be detected (step 1422), whichtriggers computation of a different rate based on the change in requestintervals (step 1424.)

FIG. 15 depicts a flow chart illustrating example processes forapplication and/or traffic (data) categorization while factoring in useractivity and expectations for implementation of network access andcontent delivery policies according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 15, aprocess for application and/or traffic categorization includes detectingnew or changed data available to be sent to a mobile device (step 1502),and, in response, either identifying an application to which the new orchanged data is directed (step 1504), determining the priority or timecriticality of the new or changed data (step 1506), or both.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 15, identification of theapplication 1504 is followed by categorizing the application (step 1506)and then applying one or more tests to determine whether the new orchanged data should be sent to the mobile device (step 1526 followed bysub-flow “B”, which is shown in more detail in FIG. 14B) or suppressed,i.e., not sent to the mobile device (step 1524 followed by sub-flow “A”,which is shown in more detail in FIG. 14A.) For example, the new orchanged data may be sent to the mobile device if the application is inan active state and interacting with a user on the mobile device (step1514) or if the application is running in the foreground on the mobiledevice (step 1514), while an application running in the background wouldbe have its new or changed data suppressed (step 1516.)

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 15, the determination of priorityor time criticality 1508 is followed by categorizing the data (step1510) and then applying one or more tests to determine whether the newor changed data should be sent to the mobile device (step 1526) orsuppressed (step 1524.) For example, data may be sent if the data ishigh priority (step 1518), if the data is time critical (step 1520), orif the user is waiting for a response that would be provided in the data(step 1522)—otherwise, the data would be suppressed.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 15, if an application is in anactive state interacting with a user on the mobile device (step 1514) orthe user is waiting for a response that would be provided in data (step1522), an additional sub-flow “C” may be performed. Sub-flow “C” isshown in more detail in FIG. 14C.

FIG. 16A depicts a flow chart illustrating sub-flow “A” in more detail.In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 16A, data to be suppressed may beheld for a period of time (step 1602) or until there is additional datato be sent (step 1604) before transmitting the new or changed data (step1606.)

FIG. 16B depicts a flow chart illustrating sub-flow “B” in more detail.In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 16B, other events may trigger theselection process. For example, detection of an activity state of anapplication on the mobile device for which traffic is directed to orfrom (step 1608) may trigger a selection process, as may determining atime criticality of data contained in the traffic to be sent between themobile device and the host server (step 1610.) In the embodimentillustrated in FIG. 16B, sub-flow “B” includes selecting a networkconfiguration for use in sending traffic b between a mobile device and ahost server in the wireless network (step 1614.) Selection may includeselection of a wireless standard (step 1614), such as 2G/2.5G 1622, 3G1624, LTE 1626, or 4G 1628. Selection may also include selection of anaccess channel type (step 1616), such as a forward access channel (FACH)1630 or a dedicated channel (DCH) 1632. Selection may include selectionof a network configuration by data rate (step 1618) or by specifyingdata access points (step 1620.)

FIG. 16C depicts a flow chart illustrating sub-flow “C” in more detail.In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 16C, the process for implementingnetwork access and content delivery policies based on application and/ortraffic (data) categorization may be triggered by detecting an activitystate of an application on the mobile device for which traffic isdirected to or originated from (step 1634) and/or determination of atime criticality of data contained in the traffic to be sent between themobile device and the host server (step 1636.) In the embodimentillustrated in FIG. 16C, sub-flow “C” includes determining a timing withwhich to allow the traffic to pass through, based on the activity stateor the time criticality (step 1638), followed by controlling radio useon the mobile device based on the timing with which the traffic isallowed to pass through (step 1640) and/or selecting a networkconfiguration in a wireless network for use in passing traffic to andfrom the mobile device (step 1642.)

FIG. 17 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process for networkselection based on mobile user activity or user expectations accordingto an embodiment of the subject matter described herein. In theembodiment illustrated in FIG. 17, the process for network selectionincludes detection of backlight status of the mobile device (step 1702),detection of user interaction with an application on a mobile device(step 1704), and/or determining whether a user is expecting datacontained in the traffic directed to the mobile device (step 1706.) Fromany of these, the process may go to step 1708, which includesdetermining an activity state of an application on the mobile device forwhich traffic is originated from or directed to, and then to step 1710,which includes selecting whether a 3G, 4G, or LTE network is used insending traffic between a mobile device and a host server in thewireless network.

FIG. 18 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computer system within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed according to an embodiment of thesubject matter described herein. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG.18, system 1800 includes a processor 1802, a main memory 1804, anon-volatile memory 1806, a network interface device 1808 for connectingto a network 1810, a video display 1812, an alphanumeric input device1814, a cursor control device 1816, a drive unit 1818, and a signalgeneration device 1820, some or all of which communicate via a systembus 1822. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 18, processor 1802 andmain memory 1804 include memory for storing machine readableinstructions. Drive unit 1818 includes a machine-readable storage medium1824 for storing machine-readable instructions.

The machine may be a server computer, a client computer, a personalcomputer (PC), a user device, a tablet PC, a laptop computer, a set-topbox (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, aniPhone, an iPad, a Blackberry, a processor, a telephone, a webappliance, a network router, switch or bridge, a console, a hand-heldconsole, a (hand-held) gaming device, a music player, any portable,mobile, hand-held device, or any machine capable of executing a set ofinstructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be takenby that machine.

In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone deviceor may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or aclient machine in a client-server network environment, or as a peermachine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.

While the machine-readable medium or machine-readable storage medium isshown in an exemplary embodiment to be a single medium, the term“machine-readable medium” and “machine-readable storage medium” shouldbe taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., acentralized or distributed database and/or associated caches andservers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term“machine-readable medium” and “machine-readable storage medium” shallalso be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encodingor carrying a set of instructions for execution by the machine and thatcause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of thepresently disclosed technique and innovation.

In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of thedisclosure may be implemented as part of an operating system or aspecific application, component, program, object, module or sequence ofinstructions referred to as “computer programs.” The computer programstypically comprise one or more instructions set at various times invarious memory and storage devices in a computer that, when read andexecuted by one or more processing units or processors in a computer,cause the computer to perform operations to execute elements involvingthe various aspects of the disclosure.

Moreover, while embodiments have been described in the context of fullyfunctioning computers and computer systems, those skilled in the artwill appreciate that the various embodiments are capable of beingdistributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that thedisclosure applies equally regardless of the particular type of machineor computer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution.

Further examples of machine-readable storage media, machine-readablemedia, or computer-readable (storage) media include but are not limitedto recordable type media such as volatile and non-volatile memorydevices, floppy and other removable disks, hard disk drives, opticaldisks (e.g., Compact Disk Read-Only Memory (CD ROMS), Digital VersatileDisks, (DVDs), etc.), among others, and transmission type media such asdigital and analog communication links.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of“including, but not limited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,”“coupled,” or any variant thereof, means any connection or coupling,either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling ofconnection between the elements can be physical, logical, or acombination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,”and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall referto this application as a whole and not to any particular portions ofthis application. Where the context permits, words in the above DetailedDescription using the singular or plural number may also include theplural or singular number respectively. The word “or,” in reference to alist of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretationsof the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list,and any combination of the items in the list.

FIG. 19 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process for providingAPIs and API extensions to third party applications for optimizing andminimizing application traffic according to an embodiment of the subjectmatter described herein. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 19, theprocess includes defining an API for controlling application trafficbetween an application client residing on a mobile device that operateswithin a wireless network and an application server not residing on themobile device (step 1902), and using the API to optimize traffic in thewireless network (step 1904.) In one embodiment, using the API tooptimize traffic can include using the API to allow or deny traffic(step 1906), using the API to adjust priority of traffic (step 1908),and/or using the API to modify delivery time of traffic (step 1910).

In one embodiment, allowing or denying traffic can include sendingtraffic only if the client is in the foreground (step 1912), sendingtraffic only if the client is active (step 1914), sending the trafficonly if the device screen is ON (step 1916). In one embodiment,modifying delivery time of traffic can include aligning delivery of thetraffic with an event or state of the client (step 1918), constrainingdelivery of the traffic to a delivery window (step 1920), and/orclumping, aggregating, or batching traffic (step 1920.) Otheroptimization of traffic between the application client and applicationserver is contemplated.

The above detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the teachings to the precise formdisclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, thedisclosure are described above for illustrative purposes, variousequivalent modifications are possible within the scope of thedisclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. Forexample, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order,alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps, or employsystems having blocks, in a different order, and some processes orblocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/ormodified to provide alternative or sub-combinations. Each of theseprocesses or blocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways.Also, while processes or blocks are at times shown as being performed inseries, these processes or blocks may instead be performed in parallel,or may be performed at different times. Further any specific numbersnoted herein are only examples: alternative implementations may employdiffering values or ranges.

The teachings of the disclosure provided herein can be applied to othersystems, not necessarily the system described above. The elements andacts of the various embodiments described above can be combined toprovide further embodiments.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, includingany that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporatedherein by reference. Aspects of the disclosure can be modified, ifnecessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the variousreferences described above to provide yet further embodiments of thedisclosure.

These and other changes can be made to the disclosure in light of theabove Detailed Description. While the above description describescertain embodiments of the disclosure, and describes the best modecontemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, theteachings can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may varyconsiderably in its implementation details, while still beingencompassed by the subject matter disclosed herein. As noted above,particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the disclosure should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the disclosure with which that terminology isassociated. In general, the terms used in the following claims shouldnot be construed to limit the disclosure to the specific embodimentsdisclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Descriptionsection explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope ofthe disclosure encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but alsoall equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the disclosure underthe claims.

This listing of claims is provided for reference:
 1. A method foroptimizing and minimizing application traffic in a wireless network, themethod comprising: defining an application programming interface (API)for controlling application traffic between an application clientresiding on a mobile device that operates within a wireless network andan application server not residing on the mobile device; and using theAPI to optimize application traffic in the wireless network includingcontrolling, by the mobile device, traffic sent by the applicationserver to the mobile device.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein using theAPI to optimize application traffic includes using the API for at leastone of: providing delivery notification to the sending entity; providingdisplay confirmation to the sending entity; adjusting message priority;adjusting optimization on a protocol-by-protocol basis; controllingdelivery of application traffic sent from the application client to theapplication server; and controlling delivery of application traffic sentbetween the application server and the application client.
 3. The methodof claim 1 wherein controlling delivery of application traffic sentbetween the application server and the application client includes atleast one of: allowing or denying delivery of traffic to the applicationclient based on the state of the mobile device; allowing or denyingdelivery of traffic to the application client based on the state of thenetwork connection between the mobile device and the wireless network;controlling the delivery of application traffic based on subscribertier; and modifying the delivery time of one or more packets of databeing sent between the application server and the application client. 4.The method of claim 3 wherein modifying the delivery time of one or morepackets of data being sent between the application server and theapplication client includes at least one of: sending a plurality of datapackets together as a batch; sending data packets within a definedwindow of time; aligning transmission of the data packets with an eventor state of the application client; sending packets to the applicationclient when the application client is in the foreground and not sendingpackets to the application client when the application client is in thebackground; sending packets to the application client when theapplication client is active and not sending packets to the applicationclient when the application client is in active; and sending packets tothe application client when the screen of the mobile device is on andnot sending packets to the application client when the screen of themobile device is not on.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein theapplication client uses the API to optimize application traffic.
 6. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the application server uses the API tooptimize application traffic.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein using theAPI to optimize application traffic includes using the API to redirecttraffic through a client-side proxy located on the mobile device.
 8. Themethod of claim 7 wherein the client-side proxy uses the API to optimizeapplication traffic.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein defining the APIincludes defining non-standard extensions to an industry standard API.10. A system for optimizing and minimizing application traffic, thesystem comprising: a mobile device that operates within a wirelessnetwork, the mobile device including an application client thatinteracts with an application server not residing on the mobile device,wherein the mobile device supports an application programming interface(API) for controlling application traffic between the application clientand the application server, and wherein the API is used to optimize theapplication traffic including controlling, by the mobile device, trafficsent by the application server to the mobile device.
 11. The system ofclaim 10 wherein using the API to optimize application traffic includesusing the API for at least one of: providing delivery notification tothe sending entity; providing display confirmation to the sendingentity; adjusting message priority; adjusting optimization on aprotocol-by-protocol basis. controlling delivery of application trafficsent from the application client to the application server; andcontrolling delivery of application traffic sent between the applicationserver and the application client.
 12. The system of claim 11 whereincontrolling delivery of application traffic sent between the applicationserver and the application client includes at least one of: allowing ordenying delivery of traffic to the application client based on the stateof the mobile device; allowing or denying delivery of traffic to theapplication client based on the state of the network connection betweenthe mobile device and the wireless network; controlling the delivery ofapplication traffic based on subscriber tier; and modifying the deliverytime of one or more packets of data being sent between the applicationserver and the application client.
 13. The system of claim 12 whereinmodifying the delivery time of one or more packets of data being sentbetween the application server and the application client includes atleast one of: sending a plurality of data packets together as a batch;sending data packets within a defined window of time; aligningtransmission of the data packets with an event or state of theapplication client; sending packets to the application client when theapplication client is in the foreground and not sending packets to theapplication client when the application client is in the background;sending packets to the application client when the application client isactive and not sending packets to the application client when theapplication client is inactive; sending packets to the applicationclient when the screen of the mobile device is on and not sendingpackets to the application client when the screen of the mobile deviceis not on.
 14. The system of claim 10 wherein the application clientuses the API to optimize application traffic.
 15. The system of claim 10wherein the application server uses the API to optimize applicationtraffic.
 16. The system of claim 10 wherein using the API to optimizeapplication traffic includes using the API to redirect traffic through aclient-side proxy located on the mobile device.
 17. The system of claim16 wherein the client-side proxy uses the API to optimize applicationtraffic.
 18. A computer program product for signaling optimization in awireless network utilizing proprietary and non-proprietary protocols,the computer program product comprising: a non-transitory computerreadable storage medium having computer readable code embodiedtherewith, the computer readable code comprising: computer readableprogram code configured for: defining an application programminginterface (API) for controlling application traffic between anapplication client residing on a mobile device that operates within awireless network and an application server not residing on the mobiledevice; and using the API to optimize application traffic in thewireless network including controlling, by the mobile device, trafficsent by the application server to the mobile device.
 19. The computerprogram product of claim 18 wherein using the API to optimizeapplication traffic includes at least one of: providing deliverynotification to the sending entity; providing display confirmation tothe sending entity; adjusting message priority; adjusting optimizationon a protocol-by-protocol basis; controlling delivery of applicationtraffic sent from the application client to the application server; andcontrolling delivery of application traffic sent between the applicationserver and the application client.
 20. The computer program product ofclaim 19 wherein controlling delivery of application traffic sentbetween the application server and the application client includes atleast one of: allowing or denying delivery of traffic to the applicationclient based on the state of the mobile device; allowing or denyingdelivery of traffic to the application client based on the state of thenetwork connection between the mobile device and the wireless network;controlling the delivery of application traffic based on subscribertier; and modifying the delivery time of one or more packets of databeing sent between the application server and the application client.21. The computer program product of claim 20 wherein modifying thedelivery time of one or more packets of data being sent between theapplication server and the application client includes at least one of:sending a plurality of data packets together as a batch; sending datapackets within a defined window of time; aligning transmission of thedata packets with an event or state of the application client; sendingpackets to the application client when the application client is in theforeground and not sending packets to the application client when theapplication client is in the background; sending packets to theapplication client when the application client is active and not sendingpackets to the application client when the application client is inactive; and sending packets to the application client when the screen ofthe mobile device is on and not sending packets to the applicationclient when the screen of the mobile device is not on.
 22. The computerprogram product of claim 18 wherein the application client uses the APIto optimize application traffic.
 23. The computer program product ofclaim 18 wherein the application server uses the API to optimizeapplication traffic.
 24. The computer program product of claim 18wherein using the API to optimize application traffic includes using theAPI to redirect traffic through a client-side proxy located on themobile device.
 25. The computer program product of claim 24 wherein theclient-side proxy uses the API to optimize application traffic.
 26. Thecomputer program product of claim 18 wherein defining the API includesdefining non-standard extensions to an industry standard API.